Hobby

A hobby ( German plural: hobbies), also known as a leisure activity or hobby is an activity that is voluntarily and regularly operates the practitioner and for the personal pleasure or relaxation. A hobby is not a profession and represents for the practitioners of a part of his identity.

The term hobby has a slight proximity to the term game. An activity is, however, only referred to when in comparison to other recreational activities has special fondness for this activity and it exercises regularly as a hobby.

An important criterion for distinguishing what counts as a hobby or as work is often, but not necessarily whether it serves as a source of livelihood. As a counterpart to the professional expert, professional - In common parlance, those who deal in their spare time with one subject, amateurs or volunteers are called. However, a voluntary activities should not be a hobby, but can also arise from the necessity of thinking.

One thing to operate as a hobby, in intensified form also have the character to be a fan of a thing if it is a kind of devotion to the cause.

The operation of a hobby has often relaxing or other useful therapeutic side effects. In some cases, however ( for example, when collecting ) the boundaries between jobs, hobbies and addiction can begin to blur. Some collections can certainly be considered as an investment, for example art collections. In addition, there are amateurs who purchase on their respective fields of knowledge and skills in which they professional experts in no way inferior and also enjoy a corresponding reputation.

According to the research of the Foundation for Future Studies - an initiative by British American Tobacco in the leisure Monitor 2013 mainly media and recreation dominate the leisure life of Germans. Accordingly, television remains the most common leisure activity. German citizens have an average of 3 hours and 49 minutes of rest per working day. This is 14 minutes less than in 2010.

Examples of common hobbies are activities such as collecting, crafts, arts and crafts, model making, sports, arts or education.

Etymology

The term derives from the English hobby -horse from which mostly hobby also in English today (plural: hobbies ) is shortened, and originally referred to a small horse or a pony, which can be traced back to hobyn / hoby, but also a children's toys, the hobbyhorse. Later this German term has taken on the secondary meaning " leisure activity ".