different between entertainment vs avocation

English

Alternative forms

• entretainment (chiefly archaic)
• intertainment (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English entretenement (“support, maintenance”), from Old French entretenement; see entertain.

Morphologically entertain +? -ment

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??n.t??te?n.m?nt/
• Rhymes: -e?nm?nt

Noun

entertainment (countable and uncountable, plural entertainments)

1. An activity designed to give pleasure, enjoyment, diversion, amusement, or relaxation to an audience, no matter whether the audience participates passively as in watching opera or a movie, or actively as in games.
2. A show put on for the enjoyment or amusement of others.
3. (obsolete) Maintenance or support.
4. (obsolete) Admission into service; service.
5. (obsolete) Payment of soldiers or servants; wages.
   • Sir John Davies

     The entertainment of the general upon his first arrival was but six shillings and eight pence.

6. (obsolete) Reception; (provision of) food to guests or travellers.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act II, Scene 4,^[1]

     I prithee, shepherd, if that love or gold

     Can in this desert place buy entertainment,

     Bring us where we may rest ourselves and feed.

   • 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, p. 61,^[2]

     Tho’ they cut [the beef] into long Pieces, (like Ropes) with the Hide; and dress’d, and eat it half-roasted according to their Custom, and gave it me in the same Manner; yet I thought this contemptible Food, and what a Beggar in England would not have touch’d, the most delicious Entertainment I ever met with.

Translations

Further reading

• entertainment in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• entertainment in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• entertainment at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• entretainment

English

Etymology

From Latin ?voc?ti? (“a distraction”), from ?voc? (“I call off, distract”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /av?(?)?ke???n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ævo??ke???n/, /æv??ke???n/
• Hyphenation: av?o?ca?tion

Noun

avocation (countable and uncountable, plural avocations)

1. (obsolete) A calling away; a diversion.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 204:

     But though she could neither sleep nor rest in her bed, yet, having no avocation from it, she was found there by her father at his return from Allworthy's, which was not till past ten o'clock in the morning.

2. A hobby or recreational or leisure pursuit.
   • 1934, Robert Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time

     But yield who will to their separation,

     My object in living is to unite

     My avocation and my vocation

     As my two eyes make one in sight.

   • 18 April, 1986, Ronald Reagan, Proclamation 5462

     Gardening is a wholesome avocation that encourages appreciation for nature and concern for the preservation and enhancement of our environment.

3. That which calls one away from one's regular employment or vocation.
4. Pursuits; duties; affairs which occupy one's time; usual employment; vocation.
   • November 1, 1711, William King, Letter to Jonathan Swift

     I have several things on the anvil, and near finished, that perhaps might be useful, if published: but the continual avocation by business, the impositions on me by impertinent visits, and the uneasiness of writing, which grows more intolerable to me every day, I doubt, will prevent my going any farther.

   • I have been received with unsurpassable politeness, delicacy, sweet temper, hospitality, consideration, and with unsurpassable respect for the privacy daily enforced upon me by the nature of my avocation here and the state of my health.

5. The calling of a case from an inferior to a superior court.

Synonyms

• (hobby): See also Thesaurus:hobby

Related terms

• avocational
• avocationally
• vocation

Translations

See also

• volunteerism