Short and sweet–and funny!–word today. =)

Amused. We all know what it means, right? “Entertained. Aroused to mirth.” And today, that’s true. But did you know that the word originally meant “distracted, diverted, cheated”??? Truth!

When amused entered the language around 1600, that was its meaning, and it continued as such until around 1727, when that sense of “distracting someone, playing a trick on them, cheating them,” took on a more positive connotation–that we were instead “pleasantly diverted.”

Amusing to see how words change over time, isn’t it. 😉