laugh
pronunciation
How to pronounce laugh in British English:
UK [lɑːf]
How to pronounce laugh in American English:
US [læf]
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- Noun:
- the sound of laughing
- a facial expression characteristic of a person laughing
- a humorous anecdote or remark intended to provoke laughter
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- Verb:
- produce laughter
Word Origin
- laugh
- laugh: [OE] The word laugh is ultimately onomatopoeic, imitative of the sound of laughter. It goes back to Indo-European *klak-, *klōk-, which also produced Greek klóssein, a verb denoting the clucking of hens, and Latin clangere ‘sound’ (source of English clangor [16]). Its Germanic descendants were *khlakh-, *khlōkh-, from which come German and Dutch lachen, Swedish and Danish le, and English laugh.=> clangor
- laugh (v.)
- late 14c., from Old English (Anglian) hlæhhan, earlier hlihhan, from Proto-Germanic *klakhjan (cognates: Old Norse hlæja, Danish le, Old Frisian hlakkia, Old Saxon hlahhian, Middle Dutch and Dutch lachen, Old High German hlahhan, German lachen, Gothic hlahjan), from PIE *kleg-, of imitative origin (compare Latin cachinnare "to laugh aloud," Sanskrit kakhati "laughs," Old Church Slavonic chochotati "laugh," Lithuanian klageti "to cackle," Greek kakhazein). Originally with a "hard" -gh- sound, as in Scottish loch; the spelling remained after the pronunciation shifted to "-f." If I coveted nowe to avenge the injuries that you have done me, I myght laughe in my slyve. [John Daus, "Sleidanes Commentaries," 1560] Related: Laughed; laughing.
- laugh (n.)
- 1680s, from laugh (v.). Meaning "a cause of laughter" is from 1895; ironic use (as in that's a laugh) attested from 1930. Laugh track "canned laughter on a TV program" is from 1961.
Antonym
Example
- 1. But she has had the last laugh .
- 2. Because we could never make each other laugh .
- 3. Ask the brains : why do we laugh when someone falls ?
- 4. To van cheele that laugh sounded horrlbly like a growl .
- 5. The animals laugh and mock this little hummingbird .