Answer: "Amused" vs. "Bemused"

[whymzycal.livejournal.com]

The question is, "What's the difference between 'amused' and 'bemused'?"

Quite a bit, actually!

Amused means "pleasurably entertained, occupied, or diverted"; "displaying amusement"; or "aroused to mirth." Basically, it means that you find something funny or entertaining, ranging from a polite chuckle to a pointing-and-laughing kind of glee:

"Yeah, Bobby, he glued my hand to a beer bottle. Can you believe that crap?" Dean said. Bobby's guffaws were so loud that Dean moved the phone away from his ear. "Well, I'm glad someone's amused by it," he muttered.

Bemused, on the other hand, means something very different: to be "bewildered or confused," or "lost in thought; preoccupied." In other words, you're not giggling at something—you've got no clue what's going on around you:

Dean had that bemused, vacant-eyed expression on his face again. Sam stopped his lecture on the dangers of bullying via social media mid-word and sighed. Dean had never understood the allure of sites like MySpace and Facebook.

Most of the time, it should be pretty clear from the context of your sentence which word you ought to use. Sometimes, however, using "bemused" might create confusion for your reader:

Rufus stuck out a hand. "An honest-to-God angel of the Lord? It's a pleasure to meet you."
Castiel looked from Rufus to Dean, clearly bemused.

If you're new to the fandom, you might not know that as an angel, Castiel is unfamiliar with the day-to-day interactions between people and finds them to be baffling rather than entertaining. Either going with a slightly clearer context or using a different word would make things easier to understand:

Rufus stuck out a hand. "An honest-to-God angel of the Lord? It's a pleasure to meet you."
Castiel looked from Rufus to Dean, clearly bemused.
"Sorry, Rufus. Cas may be a badass angel of the Lord, but he's also really awkward," Dean said. "He doesn't know about things like shaking hands or doing laundry or drinking good scotch—or anything else, really."

Or

Rufus stuck out a hand. "An honest-to-God angel of the Lord? It's a pleasure to meet you."
Castiel looked from Rufus to Dean, clearly confused.

So remember: if you're amused, you're probably laughing. If you're bemused, you're probably bewildered, befuddled, or confused.


Sources:
"Amused" at Dictionary.com
"Bemused" at Dictionary.com

Comments

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

Interesting coincidence, I recently looked this word up and realized that it did not mean what I'd thought it did (possibly due to how others use it or my own twisting of the word over time). I wanted it to mean something like mildly amused or unimpressed with something.

It's always disheartening when one discovers such a flaw in your vocabulary because it makes you wonder what other words you could be off track about. Certainly, if one has a personal vocabulary, that doesn't extend well into fandom, although...I'm envious how Lewis Carroll got away with so much word invention!

[dark-weezing.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I also had the same problem with bemused, until I finally looked it up. Yeah, I applied it in the same meaning you had. Whoops.

Anyway, good lesson, and always note the 'B.' Heh.

[bluewolf458.livejournal.com]

Actually, so did Shakespeare! but for some reason most of his invented words made it into standard English.

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

That's true. I believe, if memory serves, my favorite is "lonely".

[rhiannonhero.livejournal.com]

Wish this had a like button! :)

Like

[txilar.livejournal.com]

Oh I agree about the like button on this one! I'm so glad to see this post. I see 'bemused' used incorrectly so much--and often from writers I respect and know to be intelligent! I guess the similarity is just too much? It's nearly as bad as lose/loose.

^_^

Re: Like

[bluewolf458.livejournal.com]

Or defuse/diffuse, which is one that really, really bugs me.

[kamben87.livejournal.com]

thank you for this :)