History

It is generally accepted that as far as the history of toys is concerned, toys have always been there in some form or another.  Since prehistoric times people have played with whatever they had to hand.

Children, adolescents, adults and even animals have always played with toys.  It may have been a stone, a stick, or anything else which happened to be around.

The first made toys, as opposed to just picking things up and playing with them, would probably have been objects which represented the things around those playing with them.  So, dolls were most likely to have been around longest, representing the babies seen every day.  It would have taken much longer for toy cars to come along though!

The word toy has been around since the fourteenth century, although where the word comes is far from clear.  It is a nice, easy, light,  happy sounding word, though, so it suits its purpose well, which is probably why the same word has been around for so long.