| 词源 |
chuckle; cackle. The O.E.D. says chuckle is an echoic word like cackle, both perhaps suggested by sounds chickens make. Chuckle provides a problem, however, because it meant “to laugh vehemently or convulsively” when first re- corded in 1598, and such laughter, to my ear, hardly sounds anything like a chicken. The soft, suppressed laughter that is chuckle’s meaning today does fit such origins, though. See onomatopoeia. |