this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2024
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Bemused
It's used incorrectly so often that even when I suspect it's being used correctly I can't be sure. At this point its ambiguity makes it a bad word choice.
What's the correct usage? and the wrong one you've been hearing?
It means puzzled and/or confused.
Many authors seem to think it means amused mixed with some confusion or puzzlement or something else like that.
Some dictionaries have started to include definitions along those lines, which is correct to do if that is becoming a common usage. But that makes the word bullshit because it no longer conveys a clear meaning. Unlike some words that gain new meanings through misuse, it's usually not clear which meaning is intended from context. Usually I can easily imagine a character's response to something to be either of these definitions so I often can't understand the author's intention. I often find myself taken out of the story while I try to understand which meaning I should use. Because of this I think the word has become useless and shouldn't be used.
I actually kind of blame that abominable terf Joanne Rowling for this one; I know I've seen her use this word a dozen different ways that never line up with each other back in the days before we knew the Harry Potter woman was about as hateful as a southern Baptist
It means something in the vein of confused but people think it means amused
Correct: confused or perplexed
Incorrect: amused