bemuse

English

WOTD – 14 May 2008

Etymology

From be- +‎ muse. In meaning, influenced by bemaze and later amuse.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /bɪˈmjuːz/, /bəˈmjuːz/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːz

Verb

bemuse (third-person singular simple present bemuses, present participle bemusing, simple past and past participle bemused)

1. (transitive) To confuse or bewilder.
   • 1771, James Foot, Penseroso:

     [With] fairy tales bemused the shepherd lies.

   • 1847, Hugh Miller, First Impressions of England and its people:

     the bad metaphysics with which they bemuse themselves

   • 2015, James Lambert, “Lexicography as a teaching tool: A Hong Kong case study”, in Lan Li, Jamie McKeown, Liming Liu, editors, Dictionaries and corpora: Innovations in reference science. Proceedings of ASIALEX 2015 Hong Kong, Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, page 146:

     With regard to definition-writing students, as a result of having spent years padding out written assignments in order to meet word-length requirements, were somewhat bemused to be told that fewer words were better than a long, wordy definition.

2. (transitive, sometimes proscribed) To be amused, especially sardonically.
3. (archaic, humorous) To devote to the Muses.
   • 1705, Alexander Pope, Letters:

     When those incorrigible things, Poets, are once irrecoverably Be-mus'd

4. (obsolete, slang, transitive) To make drunk; to intoxicate.
   • 1735, Alexander Pope, Satires of Dr. Donne versified:

     a parson much be-mus'd in beer

   • 1784, Edward Harwood, The Case of the Rev. Dr Harwood, page 27:

     This old man generally bemused himself in beer, once a fortnight.

   • 1891, Grace L. Keith Johnston, The Halletts: A Country Town Chronicle, volume 3, page 34:

     […] more innocently, and no doubt profitably, than if he had dined at a big-wig's board or bemused himself with smoke and beer among his brethren of the pen.

Derived terms

• bemusement

 

Translations

to confuse or bewilder

• Bulgarian: обърквам (bg) (obǎrkvam), смайвам (bg) (smajvam), слисвам (bg) (slisvam)
• Catalan: destarotar (ca), desconcertar (ca)
• Czech: zmást pf, poplést pf, vyvést z míry pf
• Dutch: verbijsteren (nl), verwarren (nl), in de war brengen
• Finnish: hämmentää (fi), häkellyttää, saattaa ymmälle
• French: déconcerter (fr), stupéfier (fr)
• German: verwirren (de), verblüffen (de), irritieren (de), nachdenklich stimmen, verwundern (de)
• Italian: confondere (it)
• Polish: speszyć (pl), zdeprymować (pl)
• Portuguese: confuso (pt)
• Russian: поража́ть (ru) (poražátʹ), ошеломлять (ru) (ošelomljatʹ), смуща́ть (ru) (smuščátʹ)
• Spanish: desconcertar (es)

to devote to the Muses

References

• (make drunk): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

Anagrams

• embues