I have a quick and dirty tip about the difference between amused and bemused.

I have a meeting middle about being bilingual and what it means to be fluent in a language.

And I have a tidbit about what linguists call the positive anymore.

Like when people say it's always rainy anymore.

Amused, amused versus bemused.

What's the trouble?

Well bemused can be confused with amused.

Bemused means confused, bewildered or baffled.

And it has nothing to do with amusement or humor or anything funny at all.

The 18th century poet Alexander Pope first used the word bemused to describe someone

who was muddled by liquor or had found amuse in beer.

Think of bemused as similar to befuddled.

And use it to describe only someone who's confused.

And avoid bemused in situations where the context is ambiguous enough to leave the reader

wondering whether you mean amused or confused.

Here's an example from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Draco was on the upper landing pleading with another masked death-eater.

Harry stunned the death-eater as they passed.

Malfoy looked around beaming for his savior and Ron punched him from under the cloak.

Malfoy fell backward on top of the death-eater, his mouth bleeding utterly bemused.

He wasn't laughing, he was confused.

Here's another example from Dennis Lahain's novel Moonlight Mile.

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