fort-da

English

Alternative forms

  • fort/da

Etymology

Borrowed from German fort (“gone”) and da (“there”), exclamations that Sigmund Freud heard his grandson utter while playing, described in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920).

Noun

fort-da

  1. (psychology) The (repeated) disappearance and reappearance of an object, especially as a source of pleasure in child play.
    • 2015, Emily Flynn-Jones, “Don't Forget to Die”, in Torill Elvira Mortensen, Jonas Linderoth, Ashley ML Brown, editors, The Dark Side of Game Play: Controversial Issues in Playful Environments‎[1], Routledge, →ISBN:
      The death loop represents a limit of the game system as well as the pleasures associated with fort-da present in the playing of digital games.
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