I actually wouldn't be surprised if it was; I learned that in Arabic, a naughty child is referred to as....shaytaan.....yes, that word is what you think it is, except in their context they use it to mean naughty; Iranians speak Farsi but I wouldn't be surprised if they use similar words. As for playful, that wouldn't surprise me either; boomer prose can sound like this as well, sort of like the REALLY older generation who still use the word 'gay' to refer to joy.