A clown at a birthday party, a Broadway show, your friends fighting over the last potato chip—all of these are forms of entertainment. The word derives from the French entretenir, meaning support or keep together; it also has its roots in hospitality–when you entertain guests, you’re keeping them happy.
Entertainment includes all the ways we amuse ourselves, from watching movies and TV to playing games and sports to listening to music and reading books and poetry. It also means experiencing visual art like galleries, museums and exhibitions, as well as creating and appreciating visual art. T E News took on the incredibly ambitious task of defining entertainment for its fall 2011 issue.