Another thing I love is laughing. Find me a person who doesn't love to laugh. Even when people are angry and act like they want to stay angry, they really can't help but laugh. It's why parents have to turn away from their kids when they do something bad but funny, why our loved ones can make us laugh even when we insist they can't because we're "mad." People love to laugh. It just feels so stinkin' good! It's all about the endorphins man. In addition to giving us a "buzz," these endorphins raise our ability to ignore pain (Welsh, 2011). So no wonder we can't stay mad.
One of the fun things we taught when I was a 4th grade teacher was something called shades of meaning. It's about words that mostly mean the same thing but have slight difference or nuances that help the reader with mood, context, tone, or any number of elements in a story. When we taught kids to write, we tried to help them understand how much more descriptive they can be with the use of strong verbs. Consider which of these sounds better:
A. He had to go to the bathroom badly so he ran down the hall really fast.
or
B. He had to go to the bathroom badly so he bolted down the hall.
This is a simplistic example, but one any 4th grade student in capable of working into their writing. Why is this relevant to my post about laughing? I'm getting to that now...
There are lots of words and phrases that mean laugh, and each of them falls on a scale of quiet, to loud and boisterous laughter. We tend to use them interchangeably for the word laugh, but the dictionary clearly distinguishes several of them from each other simply by including the word quiet(ly) or loud(ly) in the definitions. We use phrases too, and these are not able to be searched in a dictionary. But by my estimation the phrases are used to describe the intensity of the laughter more than the noise level.
When we are laughing hard at something very funny- perhaps a George Carlin bit, or when someone extremely ticklish is being tickled, it might be described as one of these:
splitting your sides rolling on the floor
being in stitches busting a gut
Two words used for laugh I found out, by dictionary definition, are not used in verb form. The are only used to describe a person's laugh, and they are listed as synonyms of each other with the same definition. One of my favorites, guffaw and the other, hee haw are both defined as a loud or boisterous burst of laughter. There are more specific nuances between the quiet words of laughter than there are between the loud ones. For example, giggle and titter both imply nervous laughter by definition. Chortle implies amusement and snigger or snicker both imply disrespect. A writer (and a reader) can certainly see the value in selecting verbs carefully. This is a tough lesson for students who think you can't be descriptive without a laundry list of adjectives in a sentence. Strong verbs are the way to go, my friends.
The definition for crack up is quite literally LOL, or to laugh out loud, and I learned one new word for laugh. I hadn't even heard the word before (it's okay, I love words- doesn't mean I know them all). Cachinnate means to laugh loudly or immoderately. I like when I learn a new word. Below is my scale as best as I can measure, of words for laugh from quiet to noisy. Maybe you find it interesting maybe you don't give a crap. I can hear your sniggers. But it's okay, I don't mind you laughing at my expense. When you're done and you've composed yourself, check out a favorite tune from Mary Poppins, I Love to Laugh.
LOUD
cachinnate
howl
hoot
roar
crack up
cackle
yuk
laugh
snigger or snicker
chortle
chuckle
giggle
titter
QUIET
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