Other forms: amusing, amused, amuses
To amuse somebody is to make them smile or laugh. Mildly, rather than helplessly.
The word is gentler than entertain, which suggests a performance, and much gentler than hilarious. It is often reflexive, so amusing yourself means finding something to do, and keeping the children amused is a phrase every parent knows. The passive carries a wry note, since being amused by something can mean finding it faintly ridiculous. Queen Victoria's supposed remark that she was not amused is the most quoted use of the word in English.
To amuse was to stupefy. Old French amuser meant to make somebody stare, gape or waste time, from muser, to loiter, so amusement was a distraction long before it was a pleasure.
Old French
amuser
Middle English
*amusen
English, today
amuse
Built from
From Middle English amusen, from Old French amuser, from und + a-. From Late Middle English amusen (“to mutter, be astonished, gaze meditatively on”), from Old French amuser (“to stupefy, waste time, be lost in thought”), from a- + muser (“to stare stupidly at, gape, wander, waste time, loiter, think carefully about, attend to”), of unknown and obscure origin. Cognate with Occitan musa (“idle waiting”), Italian musare (“to gape idly about”). Possibly from Old French mus (“snout”) from Vulgar Latin mūsa (“snout”) — compare Medieval Latin - mūsum (“muzzle, snout”) –, from Proto-Germanic mū- (“muzzle, snout”), from Proto-Indo-European mū- (“lips, muzzle”). Compare frr müs, mös (“mouth”), German Maul (“muzzle, snout”). Alternative etymology connects muser and musa with Frankish muoza (“careful attention, leisure, idleness”), from Proto-Germanic mōtǭ (“leave, permission”), from Proto-Indo-European med- (“to acquire, possess, control”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA