From the clown at a birthday party to the stadium rock concert, from the backstabbing in soap operas to your friends fighting over the last potato chip, entertaiment is what amuses us. It is a form of entertainment that includes any activity that involves an external stimulus, provides pleasure, requires an audience and is consumed passively.
From Old French entretenement, from entre- “among” (see inter-) + tenir (“to hold together, support, keep up”), with the sense of hospitality and the idea of keeping someone happy. It also came to mean to please or gratify.
A common suffix forming nouns that have their basis in verb stems, such as amazement, betterment, merriment. See -ment for more. Also found in other languages, including English.