Articles tagged with “Entertaiment”

To entertain is to gratify, divert, or amuse. In modern times, entertainments have evolved to suit every taste and every scale: from an intimate personal choice of pre-recorded products; to a banquet adapted to two; to a public spectacle intended for thousands or even the entire world.

The word entertainment is derived from the Medieval Latin intertenere, from the prefix inter- (“inside”) and the suffix tenir, from the root tenere (to stretch). In English it was first used in 15c. The sense of “have a guest” is from the late 15c; that of “gratify, amuse” is 1620s.

The word entertainment is also related to enchantment and amazement, from the Latin -mentum (product or result of an action; akin to the English suffixes betterment, merriment). It is a common suffix for forming nouns from verb stems, as in amazement, betterment, merriment. It is the origin of the English -ment in words like adornment and embellishment.