aah

See also ah

English

WOTD – 7 May 2006    

Pronunciation

As an interjection the word is pronounced basically the same way as the interjection ah but the double a stresses prolongation. In the noun and the verb there is no extra prolongation.

Interjection

aah

1. Indication of amazement or surprise or enthusiasm.

   Aah! That's amazing!

2. Indication of joyful pleasure.
   • 1834 — Edgar Allan Poe, The Assignation

     Yet I remember—aah! how should I forget?

3. Indication of sympathy.
4. Indication of mouth being opened wide.

   Dentists would always instruct, say aah!

5. To express understanding.

   Aah. Now I understand.

Translations

expressing amazement or surprise

• Chinese: 嗯
• Croatian: o!
• Danish: ah (da), aha (da)
• Dutch: och (nl)
• Estonian: ah (et)
• Latin: hui (la)

• Lithuanian: ach!
• Polish: ach (pl)
• Russian: ах (ru) (ax)
• Spanish: ¡ay! (es), ¡ah! (es)
• Swedish: åh (sv), oh (sv), ah (sv)

Noun

aah (plural aahs)

1. Expression of amazement or surprise or enthusiasm.
2. Expression of joy and/or pleasure.
3. The exclamation aah.

Related terms

• oohs and aahs

Translations

Translations

expression of amazement or surprise or enthusiasm

• Estonian: ahhetus (et)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Telugu: ఆహా

Verb

aah (third-person singular simple present aahs, present participle aahing, simple past and past participle aahed)

1. To say or exclaim aah.
   1. To express amazement or surprise or enthusiasm, especially by the interjection aah.

      Everyone who came by oohed and aahed over her new appearance.

   2. To express joy or pleasure, especially by the interjection aah.

Usage notes

• Usually the verb is intransitive. The object of feelings usually is indicated by the prepositions over or at; sometimes it occurs as a direct object, especially in passive constructions.
• Very often the word is used together with some other verb derived from an interjection. The most common combination is to ooh and aah. Perhaps it should be regarded as a separate lexical item.
• The word belongs to the informal style.

Translations

to express amazement using "aah!"

• Estonian: ahhetama

Anagrams

• AHA, a-ha, aha

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Manx

Alternative forms

• aae

Etymology

From Old Irish ath (compare Scottish Gaelic àth).

Noun

aah f (genitive aah, plural aahghyn or aaghyn)

1. ford