amuse

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French amuser (“to divert; to cause to muse”),^[2][3][4] from amuser (“to fool, deceive, entrap”),^[5][3][6] formed from a- (“to”), from Latin ad-, and muser (“to ponder, stare fixedly”), the source of muse.^[5][3][2][7] Etymonline takes the prefix as causative, so that the verb meant literally "to cause to muse".^[5][8] The OED records the French verb from the late 12th century for leading someone on with expectations, from the 14th for beguiling or puzzling, and since the early 15th century for entertaining someone as a distraction from serious matters.^[9] Ayto calls the verb probably a French creation, and links muser with muse "an animal's mouth", from Medieval Latin mūsum, the source of muzzle;^[10] it has no connection with the Muse of the arts.^[10] The OED compares Dutch amuseren and German amüsieren.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To divert someone's attention in order to mislead them; to delude or deceive: 1480, in Caxton's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses.^[9][2] Etymonline dates the word to the late 15th century with the senses "to divert the attention, beguile, delude".^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word moved from deceiving to entertaining.^[11][12] Through the 17th and 18th centuries its usual sense was still "to deceive, cheat", by first occupying a person's attention,^[5][10][13] and in military use it meant to distract an enemy from one's real intent, as when Nelson wrote in 1796 that the enemy fleet was to "amuse ours".^[12][9] Ayto traces this sense back through "bewilder, puzzle" to an original "make someone stare open-mouthed".^[10] Other early senses were "to muse, gaze intently" (1532–1854) and "to puzzle, bewilder" (1595–1910), both now obsolete.^[9] The word was rare before 1600 and Shakespeare did not use it.^[5][13][14] The modern sense, to divert someone from serious matters with something pleasant or funny, dates from the mid 17th century,^[13][8][12] and Etymonline records "to divert from serious business, tickle the fancy of" from the 1630s.^[5] Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories explains the change, as with beguile and divert, by the image of leading someone away from his or her cares.^[11] Johnson (1755) defined it as to entertain the mind quietly without distracting it, and noted that it was often used with a shade of contempt.^[15] Weekley and Etymonline note that bemuse keeps more of the original meaning.^[14][5] In 18th-century British criminal slang, to amuse was to fool shopkeepers in order to cheat or rob them.^[16] The phrase "We are not amused", associated with Queen Victoria, is first recorded in 1919, and there is no firm evidence that she said it.^[12] Since 1988 amuse has also been a noun, short for amuse-bouche.^[9][4]

Timeline

• 1480 – to divert someone's attention in order to deceive them.^[9][2]
• 1532 – to muse or gaze intently (obsolete by 1854).^[9]
• 1550 – reflexive, to occupy oneself (obsolete).^[9]
• 1569 – to distract an enemy from one's real aim.^[9]
• 1579 – to while away time pleasantly; to keep someone in expectation with false promises.^[9]
• 1630s – to divert from serious business, to entertain.^[5]
• 1755 – Johnson's Dictionary defines it as to entertain with tranquillity.^[15]
• 1988 – noun, an amuse-bouche.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make someone laugh or smile: The clown's antics amused the children.^[17][13]
2. To keep someone pleasantly occupied; to entertain or divert: She amused herself with a crossword while she waited.^[17][4][13]
3. (archaic) To divert someone's attention in order to mislead them; to delude or deceive.^[4][9][13]
4. (obsolete) To bewilder or puzzle.^[4][9][13]

Noun

1. An amuse-bouche.^[4][9]

Word family

• amusable
• amuser
• amusedly
• amusement
• amusive

Related words

• muse
• bemuse
• muzzle

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins