different between amuse vs occupy

English

Etymology

From Late Middle English *amusen (“to mutter, be astonished, gaze meditatively on”), from Old French amuser (“to stupefy, waste time, be lost in thought”), from a- + muser (“to stare stupidly at, gape, wander, waste time, loiter, think carefully about, attend to”), of uncertain and obscure origin. Cognate with Occitan musa (“idle waiting”), Italian musare (“to gape idly about”). Possibly from Old French *mus (“snout”) from Vulgar Latin *m?sa (“snout”)  — compare Medieval Latin m?sum (“muzzle, snout”) –, from Proto-Germanic *m?- (“muzzle, snout”), from Proto-Indo-European *m?- (“lips, muzzle”). Compare North Frisian müs, mös (“mouth”), German Maul (“muzzle, snout”).

Alternative etymology connects muser and musa with Frankish *muoza (“careful attention, leisure, idleness”), from Proto-Germanic *m?t? (“leave, permission”), from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to acquire, possess, control”).This would make it a cognate of Dutch musen (“to leisure”), Old High German *muoza (“careful attention, leisure, idleness”) and muoz?n (“to be idle, have leisure or opportunity”), German Muße (“leisure”). More at empty.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??mju?z/
• Rhymes: -u?z

Verb

amuse (third-person singular simple present amuses, present participle amusing, simple past and past participle amused)

1. (transitive) To entertain or occupy (someone or something) in a pleasant manner; to stir (an individual) with pleasing emotions.
   • 1786, William Gilpin, Observations, relative chiefly to picturesque beauty, made in the year 1772, on several parts of England; particularly the mountains, and lakes of Cumberland, and Westmoreland

     A group of children amusing themselves with pushing stones from the top [of the cliff], and watching as they plunged into the lake.

2. To cause laughter or amusement; to be funny.

3. (transitive, archaic) To keep in expectation; to beguile; to delude.
4. (transitive, archaic) To occupy or engage the attention of; to lose in deep thought; to absorb; also, to distract; to bewilder.
   • 1600, Philemon Holland, The Romane Historie

     the enemies were amused on the fires that our men made

   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, Church History of England

     Being amused with grief, fear, and fright, he could not find the house.

Synonyms

• entertain, gratify, please, divert, beguile, exhilarate

Derived terms

• amusement

Translations

References

• amuse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• musea

Dutch

Etymology

Clipping of amuse-bouche or amuse-gueule.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?a??my?.z?/, /?a??my.z?/
• Hyphenation: amu?se

Noun

amuse m (plural amuses)

1. appetiser, hors d'oeuvre

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.myz/
• Homophones: amuses, amusent

Verb

amuse

1. first-person singular present indicative of amuser
2. third-person singular present indicative of amuser
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of amuser
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of amuser
5. second-person singular imperative of amuser

English

Etymology

From Middle English occupien, occupyen, borrowed from Old French occuper, from Latin occup?re (“to take possession of, seize, occupy, take up, employ”), from ob (“to, on”) + capi? (“to take”). Doublet of occupate, now obsolete.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??kj?pa?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??kj?pa?/
• Hyphenation: oc?cu?py

Verb

occupy (third-person singular simple present occupies, present participle occupying, simple past and past participle occupied)

1. (transitive, of time) To take or use.
   1. To fill.
   2. To possess or use the time or capacity of; to engage the service of.

   3. To fill or hold (an official position or role).

   4. To hold the attention of.

2. (transitive) To take or use space.
   1. To fill space.

   2. To live or reside in.

      • The better apartments were already occupied.
   3. (military) To have, or to have taken, possession or control of (a territory).
      • 1940, in The China monthly review, volumes 94-95, page 370 [1]:

        The Japanese can occupy but cannot hold, and what they can hold they cannot hold long, was the opinion of General Pai Chung-hsi, Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese Army, […]

      • 1975, Esmé Cecil Wingfield-Stratford, King Charles and King Pym, 1637-1643, page 330 [2]:

        Rupert, with his usual untamable energy, was scouring the country — but at first in the wrong direction, that of Aylesbury, another keypoint in the outer ring of Oxford defences, which he occupied but could not hold.

      • 1983, Arthur Keppel-Jones, Rhodes and Rhodesia: The White Conquest of Zimbabwe, 1884-1902, page 462:

        One of the rebel marksmen, who had taken up position on a boulder, was knocked off it by the recoil of his weapon every time he fired. Again the attack achieved nothing. Positions were occupied, but could not be held.

      • 1991, Werner Spies, John William Gabriel, Max Ernst collages: the invention of the surrealist universe, page 333:

        Germany occupied France for three years while France struggled to make payments that were a condition of surrender.

      • 2006, John Michael Francis, Iberia and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, page 496:

        Spain occupied, but could not populate, and its failure to expand Florida led Britain to consider the peninsula a logical extension of its colonial holdings.

   4. (surveying) To place the theodolite or total station at (a point).
3. (transitive, obsolete) To have sexual intercourse with.
   • 1590s, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, II.iv

     God's light, these villains will make the word as odious as the word 'occupy;' which was an excellent good word before it was ill sorted

   • 1867, Robert Nares A Glossary

     OCCUPY, [sensu obsc.] To possess, or enjoy.

     These villains will make the word captain, as odious as the word occupy. 2 Hen. IV, ii, 4.

     Groyne, come of age, his state sold out of hand

     For 's whore; Groyne still doth occupy his land. B. Jons. Epigr., 117.

     Many, out of their own obscene apprehensions, refuse proper and fit words, as occupy, nature, and the like. Ibid., Discoveries, vol. vii, p. 119.

     It is so used also in Rowley's New Wonder, Anc. Dr., v, 278.

4. (obsolete) To do business in; to busy oneself with.

   • All the ships of the sea, with their mariners, were in thee to occupy the merchandise.

   • 1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin), 1516

     not able to occupy their old crafts

5. (obsolete) To use; to expend; to make use of.

   • all the gold that was occupied for the work

   • 1551, Ralph Robinson (tr.), Sir Thomas More's Utopia (in Latin), 1516

     They occupy not money themselves.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (to possess or use the time or capacity of): employ, busy
• (to have sexual intercourse with): coitize, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

Derived terms

• occupier

Related terms

• occupant
• occupation

Translations

See also

• Appendix:American Dialect Society words of the year

References

• occupy at OneLook Dictionary Search
• occupy in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
• occupy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• occupy in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.