Late 15th century (in the sense 'delude, deceive'): from Old French amuser 'entertain, deceive', from a- (expressing causal effect) + muser 'stare stupidly'. Current senses date from the mid 17th century.

• In its early senses amuse had more to do with deception than entertainment or humour. Dating from the late 15th century and coming from an Old French word meaning ‘to stare stupidly’ (also the source of to muse), it originally meant ‘to delude or deceive’. In the 17th and 18th centuries to amuse someone usually meant to divert their attention in order to mislead them. In military use it meant to divert the attention of the enemy away from what you really intend to do, so Lord Nelson, wrote in 1796: ‘It is natural to suppose their Fleet was to amuse ours whilst they cross from Leghorn.’ We are not amused is associated with Queen Victoria (1819–1901). It is first recorded in Notebooks of a Spinster Lady (1919) by Caroline Holland—Victoria is supposed to have made the stern put-down in 1900 to a man who had made an inappropriate joke. There is no firm evidence that she said it, though, and her biographer Stanley Weintraub (b.1929) claimed that ‘she was often amused’.