the.com/player
Either dominating the game or running it — context decides whether you respect them.
means A person who takes part in a game or sport, or — in slang — someone who skillfully manipulates romantic or social situations to their own advantage.
from From the Old English 'plega' (game, sport, brisk movement) via the verb 'pleg(i)an' (to exercise, frolic, perform), giving us 'play' and its agent-noun 'player.' For centuries it simply meant one who plays — at games, at music, on the stage (Shakespeare's 'all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players'). The romantic-operator sense is a much later slang extension, gaining traction in 20th-century American vernacular, where 'playing' someone shaded from playing a game into working an angle.
- oldest pro
- Athletes once competed for olive wreaths, not money
- word root
- From Old English plega, meaning brisk movement
- record player
- Same word spun your grandparents' favorite songs
- benchwarmers
- Most rosters carry players who rarely play
- player two
- Co-op gaming invented friendship that survives mistakes
lebron james — nba basketball player who has won 4 championships across 3 teams since 2003
roger federer — swiss tennis player with 20 grand slam titles, dominated 2000s-2010s