Etymograph

English

entertainment

Entertainment comes from Middle English entretenement ‘support, maintenance’, from Old French entretenement.

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400entretenement1
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500entretenement1‘support, maintenance’
  3. Englishearliest quotation c. 1598–1600entertainment1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English entertainment
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1598–1600, William Shakespeare, As You Like It: “I prithee, shepherd, if that love or gold Can…”.

Lineage

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400entretenementWiktionary, English entertainment
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500entretenementWiktionary, English entertainment‘support, maintenance’
  3. Englishearliest quotation c. 1598–1600entertainmentWiktionary, English entertainment. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1598–1600, William Shakespeare, As You Like It: “I prithee, shepherd, if that love or gold Can…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with entertainment, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *ten- ‘to stretch, extend’

  • continue ← continuen ← continuer ← continuō ← continuus
  • tight ← *þiht ← *þį̄ht(ī) ← *þinhtaz ← *tenkt-
  • content ← contenten ← contentus#Etymology_2 ← contineō ← teneō
  • tone ← ton ← tonus ← τόνος ← τείνω
  • ton ← tonus ← τόνος ← *tónos ← *tón-os
  • tune ← ton ← tonus ← τόνος ← *tónos
  • tennis ← tennys ← tenir ← tenīre ← teneo
  • continuous ← continuus ← contineō ← teneō ← *tenēō
  • maintenance ← mayntenaunce ← maintenir ← manus tenēre
  • obtain ← obteinen ← obtenir ← obtinēre ← tenēre
  • contain ← conteinen ← contenir ← continēre ← contineō
  • retain ← reteinen ← reteiner ← retenir ← *retinīre

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Today it means

noun An activity designed to give pleasure, enjoyment, diversion, amusement, or relaxation to an audience, no matter whether the audience participates passively as in watching opera or a movie, or actively as in games.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “entertainment”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Old French entretenement / entertainment