A clown at a birthday party, a Broadway show, your friends fighting over the last potato chip–all of these are entertainment. The word stems from the Old French entretenir meaning “hold together” or “support” and was associated with hospitality. Entertaiment provides amusement and diversion: It can stimulate the brain to realease seratonin and dopamine. It can also touch the deep emotional nerves that we evolved to react to as human beings, such as backstabbing and murders. You may see the word abbreviated to entmt on a flier or in industry news publications, where space is limited.
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