divertissement [dih-vur-tis-muhnt; French dee-ver-tees-mahn]

noun:
1 a diversion or entertainment
2 a short ballet or other performance serving as an interlude in a play, opera, etc
3 a program consisting of such performances

Examples:

This season, the Act 2 pas de quatre, a speedy and demanding divertissement for three women and one man, was cut to help streamline the ballet. (Gia Kourlas, At New York City Ballet, Swans Use Grit to Find Glory , The New York Times, February 2020)

But this smart, fast-paced film is not really the zany, lighter-than-air divertissement that the term usually conjures. (Stephen Holden, 'Mistress America,' a Noah Baumbach Comedy on Getting By in a Backbiting World, The New York Times, August 2015)

Big-league ball on the west coast of Florida is a spring sport played by the young for the divertissement of the elderly - a sun-warmed, sleepy exhibition celebrating the juvenescence of the year and the senescence of the fans. (Roger Angell, The Old Folks Behind Home, The New Yorker, March 1962)

"I tell you all this," continued La Fontaine, "because you are preparing a divertissement for Vaux, are you not?" (Alexandre Dumas, The Man in the Iron Mask)

The divertissement, the masquerade, the pageant, the perpetual disguise of humanity that is too soon marred, too soon sad, the theatre, every conceivable artifice of light and shadow, sound and colour, speed and space, was needed to imitate these enchanted dells and forests, these magic lakes and unearthly palaces, where Armida and Gloriana might have disported. (Marjorie Bowen, Nightcap and Plume)

Origin:

Divertissement can mean 'diversion' in both English and French, and it probably won't surprise you to learn that 'divertissement' and 'diversion' can be traced back to the same Latin root : divertere, meaning 'to turn in opposite directions.' Early uses of 'divertissement' in English often occurred in musical contexts, particularly opera and ballet, describing light sequences that entertained but did little to further the story. (The word's Italian cousin, divertimento, is used in a similar way.) Today 'divertissement' can refer to any kind of amusement or pastime, specifically one that provides a welcome distraction from what is burdensome or distressing. (Merriam-Webster)

legerdemain [lej-er-duh-meyn]

noun:
1 sleight of hand
2 a display of skill or adroitness

Examples:

In Open Eye's itsy-bitsy performing space, Sass has constructed a set filled with tricks and gimmicks: old-fashioned bulletin boards animate themselves, objects move on their own, characters appear from and disappear to unexpected places. Some of the legerdemain is how'd-they-do-that pieces of stage magic, while other bits are visual distraction. (Dominic P Papatola , Theater review: These 'Red Shoes' can't be tied with a bow. And that's a good thing , Twin Cities, March 2017)

Poirot reacts to all this legerdemain with a disbelieving scowl, even when he can't fully explain the hair-raising tricks his eyes and ears are playing on him. (Justin Chang, Review: With 'A Haunting in Venice,' Kenneth Branagh's Agatha Christie series hits its stride , Los Angeles Times, September 2023)

The magician on stage is all-powerful to the mesmerised audience, pulling the rabbit out of his hat, sawing pretty ladies in half, making members in the audience disappear and a host of other tricks in his legerdemain (Ravi Shankar, Why poll Houdini Prashant Kishor isn't a neta, The New Indian Express, February 2022)

Every little while he would bend down and take hold of the edge of the blanket with the extreme tips of his fingertips, as if to show there was no deception - chattering away all the while - but always, just as I was expecting to see a wonder feat of legerdemain, he would let go the blanket and rise to explain further. (Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad)

He already sang as nobody on this earth had ever sung before; he practised ventriloquism and gave displays of legerdemain so extraordinary that the caravans returning to Asia talked about it during the whole length of their journey. (Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera)

(click to enlarge)

early 15c, 'conjuring tricks, sleight of hand,' from Old French léger de main 'quick of hand,' literally 'light of hand.' Léger 'light' in weight (Old French legier, 12c) is from Latin levis 'light' (from PIE root legwh- 'not heavy, having little weight'). Main 'hand' is from Latin manus (from PIE root man- 'hand'). (Online Etymology Dictionary)

In Middle French, folks who were clever enough to fool others with fast-fingered illusions were described as leger de main, literally 'light of hand'. English speakers condensed that phrase into a noun when they borrowed it in the 15th century and began using it as an alternative to the older sleight of hand. (That term for dexterity or skill in using one's hands makes use of sleight, an old word from Middle English that derives from an Old Norse word meaning 'sly.') In modern times, a feat of legerdemain can even be accomplished without using your hands, as in, for example, 'an impressive bit of financial legerdemain.' (Merriam-Webster)