Words

After posting yesterday, I started to wonder if I really knew what the word "bemused" meant. I suppose because of its second syllable - "muse" - I intuited a connection with "amused." This lead me to my connotation of confused with a smile on your face - pleasantly puzzled, if you will. But when I started to think about it, I realized I wasn't sure. And I became concerned: proper use of words is fundamental to my identity. And how can I risk publishing a blog entry with the wrong word? Even if my readership is, oh, 2 people?

so I looked it up again.

From the dictionary option on dictionary.reference.com:
bemused: bewildered, confused

Moving over to the thesaurus:
absent-minded, unaware.

Apparently, I was right about the link with "amuse," which began life meaning 'to divert the attention of in order to mislead' So, bemused is confused because you were amused ...