"Laugh"

This was a fun one to explore!

It seems like "laugh" is largely onomatopaeic in its origins, as so many different languages have a similar sounding word for it. You will be able to tell right away by the enormous list in the etymology I pulled from OED below! However, as the article notes, some of these similarities could also be due to languages imitating each other or borrowing the words from other languages.

"Laugh"

Etymology:  Cognate with Old Frisian hlakkia , hlākia , laittia (weak verb, past tense hlakkade ; West Frisian laitsje ), Middle Dutch lachen , past tense (strong Class VI) loech , also occasionally (weak) lachede , lachte , past participle (strong Class VI) gelachen , also occasionally (weak) gelacht (Dutch lachen , past tense lachte , past participle gelachen ), Old Saxon *hlahhian (strong Class VI, only attested in inflected forms: past tense plural hlōgun , past participle hlagan (attested for the derivative bihlahhian ); Middle Low German (weak) lachen , past tense lachte ), Old High German *hlahhen (strong Class VI, only attested in a glossary in the 3rd singular past tense hlōc ), also hlahhēn (weak Class III, past tense hlahhēta ; Middle High German, German lachen (weak), past tense lachte , past participle gelacht ), Old Icelandic hlæja(strong Class VI, past tense singular hló , past tense plural hlógu , past participle hleginn ), Old Swedish leia (strong, past tense lo ; Swedish le, past tense log ), Old Danish le (strong, past tense lo ; Danish le , past tense lo ), Gothic hlahjan (strong Class VI, past tense singular *hloh , past tense plural hlohun (attested for the derivative bihlahjan )), Crimean Gothic lachen , all probably ultimately of imitative origin, probably < an Indo-European base of imitative origin; similar formations are seen in e.g. Byzantine Greek κλώσσειν to cluck, Old Church Slavonic klokotati , Old Russian klokotat′ (Russian klokotat′ ) to bubble, boil, gargle, Russian kloktat′ , kloxtat′ to cluck, and the words cited at clock n.1

This idea of onomatopoeia got me thinking about all the amazing words we have in English that mean "laugh", so I decided to dig into a few of those as well.

"Giggle"

This word has a more innocent connotation, and I always have thought it to be more "girly" than other words for "laugh".

Etymology:  Echoic; compare the synonymous Dutch giggelen , giegelen , gi(e)chelen , Middle High German gickeln , modern Germangichelen , gickeln , gichern , kichern ; also various other imitative words in English with the frequentative suffix -le suffix, as gaggle, cackle. (Johnson 1755 remarks ‘It is retained in Scotland’; but there is no scarcity of examples in English writers of the 18th cent.)

"Cackle"

"Cackle", as it is mentioned in the previous etymology for "giggle", has an imitative aspect to it as well. (I can think of some very guilty "cacklers" who have just the type of laugh for this word). This word (to me) also has taken on a sinister connotation, and can bring to mind a wicked, evil type laugh, like the one belonging to the Wicked Witch of the West that terrified me a child (and maybe even now!).

Etymology:  Early Middle English cakelen : corresponding to Dutch kakelen , Low German kâkeln , Swedish kackla , Danish kagle ; compare also German gackeln , Dutch gaggelen , and gaggle n. The evidence does not make it certain to what extent the word has arisen separately in different languages in imitation of the animal sounds, or has been adopted from one language into another. The word may have been West Germanic or at least Saxon: but the English may also have been from Scandinavian.

And finally, I couldn't leave out one of my favorites, "guffaw". NO idea where the crazy Scots got this one from! Maybe their laughs sound different up there in the mountains and fog. More "guffaw-y".

"Guffaw"

Etymology:  Echoic; compare the related noun and gawf v. Scots

As I was reading about all these etymologies, it occurred to me that many of the best "laugh" words only really come up in a written context, and rarely used out loud. I am trying to imagine myself trying to work "gaffaw" into a normal conversation, and it just seems ridiculous. More often, I find myself saying things like, "She was dying laughing", "she lost it", or "I had her in tears". Interesting, since there are so many lovely and delightful words to describe this goofy thing we humans do!