词汇 | chuckle |
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. |
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