Bemused

Word of the Day for Thursday, August 1, 2013

Bemused \bih-MYOOZD\, adjective:

1. bewildered or confused.
2. lost in thought; preoccupied.

He was not only bemused by the voice he had heard. He was bemused by to the very grandeur of the position which he aspired.
-- Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men, 1946

She said nothing else, she just watched his quiet bemused and intent face as he plumbed his empty pockets one by one.
-- William Faulkner, Pylon, 1935

Bemused comes from the Old French muser meaning "to ponder," "dream" or "waste time." It entered English in the late 1800s, though the verb form bemuse has existed in English since the early-to-mid 1700s.

Thanks to: www.dictionary.com