noun
a diversion or entertainment.
The English noun divertissement comes directly from the French divertissement 鈥渁musement, entertainment, diversion.鈥 Divertisse- is the long stem of the verb divertir 鈥渢o amuse, entertain鈥; it comes from Latin 诲墨惫别谤迟别谤别 or 诲脓惫别谤迟别谤别 鈥渢o turn away, divert, make a detour, digress鈥; the French suffix -ment, from the similar Latin noun suffix -mentum, denotes action or resulting state. Divertissement entered English in the 18th century.
Featuring an uncomplicated plot and easily relatable personalities, this is a divertissement compared with the thematic heft of 鈥淟ike Father, Like Son.鈥
My place in your life is a divertissement, and when it ceases to be that it will be no good to you.
The verb cozen has a doubtful ancestry. One plausible etymology has cozen associated with the noun cousin (i.e., the relative), modeled on the French usage of the verb cousiner 鈥渢o call 鈥榗ousin,鈥欌 i.e., to claim fraudulent kindred to gain some profit or advantage. A second etymology derives cozen from Italian cozzonare 鈥渢o engage in horse trading, cheat,鈥 from cozzone, from Latin 肠辞肠迟颈艒苍-, the inflectional stem of 肠辞肠迟颈艒 鈥渁 dealer, broker.鈥 Cozen entered English in the 16th century.
He had come to cozen me into letting him use me in return for a mockery of an honor.
Let us cozen it with a golden shrewdness.
noun
twilight; dusk; the beginning of聽evening.
Evenfall, “the beginning of evening, dusk,” from its very look is a poetic word. It is reasonable to assume, but impossible to prove, that evenfall was modeled on the earlier nightfall (1700). Evenfall entered English in the 19th century.
And now ’tis evenfall in the brave and beautiful Borderland, and long shadows fall across the smooth lawns and fragrant garden …
James Turner had his own conception of what happiness was … Mine is to smoke a pipe at evenfall and watch a badger, a rattlesnake, and an owl go into their common prairie home one by one.