The Rice University Neologisms Database

a male who fools around with many girls and deceives each one, making them believe he is exclusively dating her. The word player is used to describe the guys that can act smooth and sweet yet be deceptive and cheating at the same time. I believe it was particularly chosen because it gives the idea of an individual playing many different roles, such as in a theatre production, and in this case many different roles are played according to each girl. The guy, or the player, is extremely skilled in playing the part every girl wants him to play in order to take advantage of her (while she is under the impression that she is the only one he is after) and to add her as another girl on his list. I believe the term was chosen with thought because it is metaphorical for what an actual ladies' man does. The term gives a sense of a person who is talented, and in this case they are if they are capable of fooling many women. Although it would be surprising to hear this term in a regular conversation with an adult, it is becoming quite common among adolescents/college students and it is not uncommon to hear someone giving you advice and telling you to stay away from someone because they are a "player". The word is interestingly heard more often from the female population than from males, which could be because the male population does not see such a person as shocking as the women do.