altariel | This is not my beautiful storm

So that slight puttering sound against the steaming tar of the road seems to be the thunderstorm I was promised last night. Huh.

Thank you to everyone who responded to the quick'n'dirty poll. I asked because for years now I've been noticing the word 'bemused' being used in a sense which is not how I use it: i.e. the only sense I can make is to change the word from 'puzzled' to 'amused'. (It mostly pops up in US mass market paperbacks, which is why I asked the flavo(u)r question; I think the first time I saw it was as a teenager in a ST:TNG paperback.) I've been wondering for some time if it was a "when we say fulsome it's not what you mean" kind of thing, or whether a usage shift was going on. Not sure I've proved anything, but I did find out (thanks,

gehayi) that 'bemused' has a whole other sense, which is 'absorbed in thought'. I don't think that suits at least some of the occasions which I've seen it and been, well, bemused by it, but I can try that next time.

Unfortunately, the instance which triggered this (from Bujold's The Hallowed Hunt) is not a particularly good example, but perhaps I'll post one when I find one.