Does the above word suggest only amusement, or do you see something more in it? To entertain a thought or idea is to give more than superficial consideration to it, in my opinion, but the word seems to have lost any sense other than mind numbing among my fellow US of Americans. How do you Brits and others see it?
Well now, "to provide amusement" is a pretty good definition of "to entertain". When we entertain someone to dinner we provide more than the food. By extension, when we entertain a thought we give it houseroom; we don't immediately kick it out of our brain.
The TV entertains and amuses millions.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Well actually, Asa, even though I am not a Brit, sometimes I use "entertain" seriously, as in "entertaining an idea."
Now, interestingly, its etymology is from Old French, meaning "to maintain," and that definition is now archaic. Also, an obsolete definition is "to hire" or "to employ." Now, I haven't heard of those definitions.
