| BMaker11 said: Yes, I do. But the arguments being made here are for "primary functions". This case, iPhone being a "telephone". I use the Blu-Ray player in the front room for "entertainment purposes". Watching movies is its "primary function". Would you call a Blu-Ray player a "toy"? If we stretch the definition to mean anything used for entertainment, and not just action figures, dolls, etc. then everything is a toy. A house is a toy. I use it to throw parties. An F1 fighter jet is a toy. Pilots like to fly up to 0 G and then do a bunch a loops, because it's "entertainment" for them. A pen is a toy. I twirl it around in class to keep me entertained because the teacher is boring. Etc. If that's the case, I can accept that. Everything is on an even playing field. But we don't, pragmatically, define things like that. They are separated. A house is living quarters, not a toy. As such, a console is...well...a console like a DVD player is a DVD player. |
Something can be a toy at one point and otherwise at a different point. Do there exist telephones or cellular phones that do not have additional recreational value?
As for the Blu-Ray player, yes it is a toy. The sole use of the device is entertainment.
You don't use the house to throw parties, the parties are thrown in the house. One can throw a party without a house. For some people an F1 fighter jet, is indeed a toy, they even describe it as such -"look at my new toy to play with." The previous statement is often used in reference to cars, as well. A pen can be a toy as well. "Toy" is not intrinsic to the object, it is determined by the use of the object. There is no trait that we can measure that says, yep this is a toy, other than the assessment of whether or not it is a tool used for recreational activities.
Here's the etymology of the word toy.
c.1300, "amorous playing, sport," later "piece of fun or entertainment" (c.1500), "thing of little value, trifle" (1520s), and "thing for a child to play with" (1580s). Of uncertain origin, and there may be more than one word here. Compare Middle Dutch toy, Dutch tuig "tools, apparatus; stuff, trash," in speeltuig "play-toy, plaything;" German Zeug "stuff, matter, tools," Spielzeug "plaything, toy;" Danish tøi, Swedish tyg "stuff, gear." Applied as an adjective to things of diminutive size, especially dogs, from 1806. Toy-boy is from 1981.
Even for the more strict words in other languages, "play thing" that would qualify video games, as they are indeed play things.
