A clown at a birthday party, a stadium rock concert, friends fighting over the last potato chip-all of these are forms of entertainment. Entertaiment, from the Medieval Latin intertenere meaning “to hold inside” (the prefix inter means “inside”), also carries echoes of the Indo-European root ten, which means to stretch.
Entertainment is an activity in which people take part for their own enjoyment and distraction. Many forms of entertainment, from the theater to video games, have persisted for centuries and have demonstrated a remarkable ability to adapt to changing culture and technology. Despite the decline of traditional media, audiences continue to go to movies, see theatrical productions and load their iPods with music shared from friends.