Consider the following entry from the 11th edition of Merriam-Webster's, and perhaps you, too, will mock Merriam:

bemuse
Pronunciation: \bi-'myüz, bē-\
Function: transitive verb
Date: 1735
1: to make confused: puzzle, bewilder
2: to occupy the attention of: distract, absorb
3: to cause to have feelings of wry or tolerant amusement "seems truly bemuseed that people beyond his circle in Seattle would be interested in his ruminations" — Ruth B. Smith

Of these twenty or so dictionary definitions of bemuse, only the charlatans at Merriam-Webster maintain that bemuse also means "amuse." And Ruth B. Smith, who cannot even seem to spell bemused correctly, is no authority on this matter. Of course, in her sentence, bemused might as easily mean "bewildered." In what the impostors at Merriam-Webster would have us believe, we can have little faith indeed.

Merriam-Webster's promotes the misuse of bemuse, but it does not include the far more interesting and useful philogeant.

More Mock Merriam

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