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Muse vs Bemuse - What's the difference?

muse | bemuse |

In transitive terms the difference between muse and bemuse

is that muse is to wonder at while bemuse is to confuse or bewilder.

As verbs the difference between muse and bemuse

is that muse is to become lost in thought, to ponder while bemuse is to confuse or bewilder.

As a noun muse

is a source of inspiration.

muse

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) muse, from (etyl) .

Noun

(s)
  • A source of inspiration.
  • (archaic) A poet; a bard.
    • (Milton)
    Usage notes
    The plural musae'' can also be found, though it is much rarer than ''muses .
    Related terms
    * museum * music

    Etymology 2

    First attested in 1340. From (etyl) muser.

    Verb

    (mus)
  • To become lost in thought, to ponder.
  • To say (something) with due consideration or thought.
  • * (seeCites)
  • To think on; to meditate on.
  • * (rfdate) Thomson
    • Come, then, expressive Silence, muse his praise.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
    • , volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […];  […]; or perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.}}
  • To wonder at.
    • (Shakespeare)
    Synonyms
    * See also
    Related terms
    * muser * musing

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An act of musing; a period of thoughtfulness.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , I.xii:
    • still he sate long time astonished / As in great muse , ne word to creature spake.
  • * 1978 , (Lawrence Durrell), Livia , Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 416:
    • He fell into a muse and pulled his upper lip.

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) musse. See muset.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A gap or hole in a hedge, fence, etc. through which a wild animal is accustomed to pass; a muset.
    • Find a hare without a muse . (old proverb)

    Anagrams

    * ----

    bemuse

    English

    Verb

    (bemus)
  • To confuse or bewilder.
  • * 1735' A parson much '''be-mus'd in beer. — Alexander Pope, ''Satires of Dr. Donne versified
  • * 1771' [With] fairy tales '''bemused the shepherd lies. — James Foot, ''Penseroso
  • * 1847' The bad metaphysics with which they '''bemuse themselves. — Hugh Miller, ''First Impressions of England and its people
  • (archaic, humorous) To devote to the Muses.
  • * 1705' When those incorrigible things, Poets, are once irrecoverably '''Be-mus'd . — Alexander Pope, ''Letters