The Latin word ludens is the present active participle of the verb ludere, which itself is cognate with the noun ludus.

Word and idea are not born of scientific or logical thinking but of creative language, which means of innumerable languages—for this act of "conception" has taken place over and over again.

Using the research of Marcel Granet, Huizinga describes the festal practices of ancient Chinese clans, who incorporated various contests in their celebrations and rituals.

[23]The potlatch is meant to be a frivolous, wasteful, even destruction display of superiority, and accounts are given of rival clans ruining their estates, killing their livestock and slaves, and even -- in one instance -- a spouse.

Instances of this practice can be traced all over the world and throughout history, even in sacred texts; for example, Marcel Mauss claimed that "the Mahabharata is the story of a gigantic potlach" (quoted by Huizinga).

[24] Tying his reflections on the potlach to his underlying thesis regarding play, Huizinga claims thatthe potlatch is, in my view, the agonistic "instinct" pure and simple.

From this, Huizinga concludes that "virtue, honor, nobility, and glory fall at the outset within the field of competition, which is that of play."

[26]The remainder of the chapter is devoted to providing literary and mythological examples of contests that have served the civilizing function, with reference being made to Beowulf, Old Norse sagas, and many others.

The sporting element and the humour so much in evidence in British legal practice is one of the basic features of law in archaic society.

[27] Huizinga puts forward the idea that there are "three play-forms in the lawsuit" and that these forms can be deduced by comparing practice today with "legal proceedings in archaic society":[28] Until recently the "law of nations" was generally held to constitute such a system of limitation, recognizing as it did the ideal of a community with rights and claims for all, and expressly separating the state of war—by declaring it—from peace on the one hand and criminal violence on the other.

There things have a different physiognomy from the one they wear in "ordinary life", and are bound by ties other than those of logic and causality.

[38] As soon as the effect of a metaphor consists in describing things or events in terms of life and movement, we are on the road to personification.

He may be regarded as an extension of the central figure in archaic cultural life who appeared before us successively as the prophet, medicine-man, seer, thaumaturge and poet and whose best designation is vates.

He cites the examples of the "architect, the sculptor, the painter, draughtsman, ceramist, and decorative artist" who in spite of her/his "creative impulse" is ruled by the discipline, "always subjected to the skill and proficiency of the forming hand".

[43] On the other hand, if one turns away from the "making of works of art to the manner in which they are received in the social milieu",[44] then the picture changes completely.

Long before the two-party system had reduced itself to two gigantic teams whose political differences were hardly discernible to an outsider, electioneering in America had developed into a kind of national sport.

The English version modified the subtitle of the book to "A Study of the Play-Element in Culture", contradicting Huizinga's stated intention.