Pronounced: kam-uh-RIL-uh (alt: kah-mah-REE-yah), noun
Notes: This word rings absolutely no bells in my memory
Yesterday’s word
The word bemuse means
- to make confused; puzzle; bewilder
- to occupy the attention of; distract; absorb
- to cause to have feelings of wry or tolerant amusement
First usage
Our word came into English around 1700
Background / Comments
I like the third definition above — especially the phrase “wry or tolerant amusement”.The first definition above is also interesting: it stems from a misunderstanding about something written by by Alexander Pope. He wrote Poets… irrecoverably Bemus’d and also used the phrase a parson much bemus’d in beer. In both cases, he meant to be inspired by or devoted to one of the Muses (the Greek sister goddesses of art, music, and literature). He likewise meant that the parson was inspired by beer, but authors of dictionaries thought he meant confused by beer, and thus the first definition came about.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 