How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts.—Ps. lxxxiv. 1. (A.V.)
Groves whose rich trees wept odorous gums and balm,
Others whose fruit, burnished with golden rind,
Hung amiable.
Milton, Paradise Lost, iv. 248.
| Amuse, | } |
| Amusement. |
The notion of diversion, entertainment, is comparatively of recent introduction into the word. ‘To amuse’ was to cause to muse, to occupy or engage, and in this sense indeed to divert, the thoughts and attention. The quotation from Phillips shows the word in transition to its present meaning. [O. Fr. amuser is a compound of muser, to muse, study, linger about a matter, to sniff as a hound, from *muse, a muzzle, nose of an animal (whence Mod. Fr. museau). Compare Florio’s Italian Dictionary: ‘Musare, to muse, to muzzle, to gape, to hold one’s muzle or snout in the air.’ The O. Fr. *muse is the same word as the Lat. morsus, see Mayhew-Skeat, Dict. of Middle English.]
Camillus set upon the Gauls, when they were amused in receiving their gold.—Holland, Livy, p. 223.
Being amused with grief, fear, and fright, he could not find a house in London (otherwise well known to him), whither he intended to go.—Fuller, Church History of Britain, b. ix. § 44.
A siege of Maestricht or Wesel (so garrisoned and resolutely defended), might not only have amused, but endangered the French armies.—Sir W. Temple, Observations on the United Provinces, c. 8.