Amused means finding something mildly funny. A raised eyebrow rather than a laugh.
It takes by or at, and the mildness is the whole word, since being amused is a long way short of helpless laughter. British English uses it for very dry approval, and looking amused can mean anything from genuine pleasure to open condescension. The most famous use in English is a denial, since Queen Victoria was reported to have said she was not amused, which has done more for the word than any other sentence.
1adjectiveamusedFinding something mildly funny or entertaining.
“He seemed quietly amused by the whole business.”
Old French
amuser
Middle English
*amusen
English
amuse
English, today
amused
Built from
From amuse + -ed. amuse comes 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