Etymologically
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laugh

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /lɑːf/, US /læf/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English laughen, lahhen,[2][3] inherited from Old English hlæhhan (Anglian), earlier hliehhan, hlihhan “to laugh, laugh at; rejoice; deride”,[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *klakhjan,[2] the source also of Old Norse hlæja, Dutch and German lachen and Gothic hlahjan,[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *kleg-,[2] of imitative origin,[2][3][4] compare Latin cachinnāre “to laugh aloud” and Greek klṓssein “to cluck”.[2][3] It is related to laughter.[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To laugh: about 897 in the OED;[6] Old English hlihhan is recorded before 725, in Genesis A, and hlæhhan before 830.[3]

Semantic evolution

It was originally pronounced with a guttural gh, as in Scottish loch;[2] the sound shifted to f in English but not Scottish use, and the spelling, as in cough and enough, does not show the change.[2] To laugh in one's sleeve, to laugh inwardly, is from 1560.[2][6] Of inanimate things, poetically, as of a laughing field, it is from about 1386.[6] The noun, the action of laughing, is from 1690,[6][2] the older noun being laughter.[2] A cause of laughter is by 1895, and the ironic that's a laugh by 1921;[2][6] for a laugh is from 1936[6] and the laugh track from 1961.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 897 – to laugh.[6]
  • c. 1386 – of inanimate things.[6]
  • 1560 – laugh in one's sleeve.[2][6]
  • 1690 – noun.[6]
  • 1895 – a cause of laughter.[2][6]
  • 1961 – laugh track.[2]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To express amusement, joy or scorn with spontaneous sounds and facial movements.
  2. To feel or show amusement.
  3. To mock or ridicule: laughed at their efforts.
  4. To say with a laugh.

Noun

  1. The act or sound of laughing.
  2. (informal) Something amusing; a joke: that's a laugh.
  3. Laughs, fun or amusement: for laughs.

Word family

  • laugher
  • laughingly
  • horselaugh
  • laughable
  • laughing
  • outlaugh
  • belly laugh
  • laugh line
  • laughter
  • cackle
  • chuckle
  • giggle

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press