Meanings
noun
alternative fort/da
- human sciencesThe (repeated) disappearance and reappearance of an object, especially as a source of pleasure in child play.
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.
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, Routledge, →ISBN
Origin
- Germanfort“gone”
- Englishfort-da
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).
More words from German
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
fort-da. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fort-da
MLA
“fort-da.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fort-da. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “fort-da,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fort-da.
Source: fort-da on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.