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A toy is something used in play by children, adults or pets. Many items are manufactured to serve as toys, but items produced for other purposes can also be used as toys. For example, a child may pick up a household item and 'fly' it around, imagining it as an airplane. Other items, marketed as toys, are intended primarily as collector's items and are unlikely to be played with.
The origin of toys is prehistoric; dolls of infants, animals, or soldiers, and miniature representations of the tools of adults are readily found at archaeological sites. The origin of the word is unknown, but it is believed to have been first used in the 14th century.
Toys have a history as old as civilizations itself. Toys have been unearthed from the sites of ancient civilizations. Some of the types of toys excavated at the Indus valley civilization (3000-1500 BCE) includes small carts, whistles shaped like birds, and toy monkeys, which could slide down a string.
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