laughen
English edit
Verb edit
laughen
- obsolete past participle of laugh.
Anagrams edit
Middle English edit
Alternative forms edit
- laughe, laghe, laghen, lawen, leigh, leygh, leiȝe, leyȝe, lauȝe, lauȝhe, lawȝe, lyȝhe, lauȝen, lauȝwhen, leighȝen, lawhyn
- (early) lahhȝhenn, lihȝen, lehȝen, lahhen, lauhwen
Etymology edit
From Old English hlæhhan, alternative form of hlehhan, hliehhan, from Proto-West Germanic *hlahhjan, from Proto-Germanic *hlahjaną.
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
laughen
- To laugh; to break out in laughter or laughing.
- a. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Knight's Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, lines 961–963:
- But right anon the worthy Knyght bigan / whan that he saugh that al the peple lough: / "Namoore of this, for it is right ynough!
- But right away the worthy Knight started / when he saw that all the people laughed: / "No more of this, because that's enough!
- To express glee or joyfulness; to show happiness.
- a. 1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Merchant's Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, lines 1723–1724:
- And Venus laugheth upon every wight / For Januarie was bicome hir knyght
- And Venus laughs about every person / As January has become her knight
- (usually with a preposition) To reminisce about; to remember with affection.
- (rare) To laugh about an incident or thing.
Conjugation edit
Conjugation of laughen (strong class 6 or weak in -ed)
infinitive | (to) laughen, laughe | ||
---|---|---|---|
present tense | past tense | ||
1st-person singular | laughe | lough, low, laughed | |
2nd-person singular | laughest | lowe, lough, low, laughedest | |
3rd-person singular | laugheth | lough, low, laughed | |
subjunctive singular | laughe | lowe1, laughed1 | |
imperative singular | — | ||
plural2 | laughen, laughe | lowen, lowe, laugheden, laughede | |
imperative plural | laugheth, laughe | — | |
participles | laughynge, laughende | laughen, laughe, laughed |
1Replaced by the indicative in later Middle English.
2Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
References edit
- “laughen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-19.