# haha

Pronunciation: say "hah-HAH" US /ˌhɑˈhɑ/, UK /ˌhɑːˈhɑː/

## Interjection

1. Used to imitate the sound of laughter, in writing or in speech.
   - Simple: A word you write or say to show the sound of someone laughing.
   - _Haha, I can't believe you fell for that again._
   - _"Haha, very funny," he said, rolling his eyes at the prank._

## Verb

2. To laugh, making the sound of laughter.
   - Simple: To laugh or make a laughing sound.
   - _He would haha loudly at his own jokes before anyone else had a chance to._
   - _She haha'd politely at the boss's story and went back to her desk._

## Noun

3. A boundary to a garden, park, or pleasure ground, typically a sunken ditch, built so that it does not block the view and stays hidden until approached closely.
   - Simple: A hidden border around a garden or park, often a ditch, that does not block the view.
   - _A haha at the foot of the lawn kept the deer out of the garden without spoiling the view across the park._
   - _The new owners dug hahas along the south side of the estate so that no fence would break the line of the hills._

## Other meanings

- (noun) Any of various Hawaiian shrubs or small trees of the genus Cyanea, in the bellflower family, many of them now rare.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–2** — From Middle English haha, ha ha, from Old English ha ha, an interjection that ultimately imitates the sound of laughter. Compare Old Frisian haha, Middle Low German hahā and hahahā, and Middle High German hahā and haha, all expressions of joy or laughter.
**Meaning 3** — Borrowed from French haha, recorded in 1686 in a place name in New France, Isle du Haha in Acadia; compare modern Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha! in Quebec. The usual explanation is that people exclaim "ha ha" or "ah! ah!" in surprise on coming upon such a boundary, a reaction traditionally attributed in France to Louis, the Grand Dauphin, in the gardens of the Château de Meudon. The English word is first recorded in 1712, in John James's translation of Dezallier d'Argenville's La theorie et la pratique du jardinage (1709).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/haha (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).