An exclamation expressing amusement, often part of laughter like 'hee haw' or 'tee hee'.
Middle English, imitative origin representing a high-pitched sound of laughter. The word developed as an onomatopoeia mimicking natural vocal sounds of mirth.
This tiny word perfectly captures how language evolves from pure sound - it's essentially fossilized laughter that became a word. Interestingly, similar sounds for laughter appear across many unrelated languages, suggesting universal acoustic patterns in human mirth.
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