different between laugher vs laughen

English

Etymology

laugh +? -er

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: l?f?, läf? IPA^(key): /?læf?/, /?l??f?/
• (US) enPR: l?f? IPA^(key): /?læf?/
• Rhymes: -æf?(r), Rhymes: -??f?(?)

Noun

laugher (plural laughers)

1. One who laughs.
   • 1863, George Eliot, Romola, Volume II, Book III, Chapter XXV, page 309

     He and his companions […] were exchanging jokes with that sort of ostentatious laughter which implies a desire to prove that the laugher is not mortified though some people might suspect it.

   • 1992, Jib Fowles, Why Viewers Watch: A Reappraisal of Television's Effects (page 119)

     These are the people whose laughter you hear after the boffolas on shows that have been filmed without audiences. I don't suppose all these laughers are dead, but a lot of them must be by this time.

2. A game in which an opponent is defeated by a sizable margin; a blowout.
3. A variety of the domestic pigeon.

Related terms

• laugh
• laughingly
• laughter

Translations

English

Verb

laughen

1. obsolete past participle of laugh.

Anagrams

• Hangeul, han-geul, hangeul

Middle English

Alternative forms

• (Early ME) lahh?henn, lih?en, leh?en, lahhen, lauhwen
• laughe, laghe, laghen, lawen, leigh, leygh, lei?e, ley?e, lau?e, lau?he, law?e, ly?he, lau?en, lau?when, leigh?en, lawhyn

Etymology

From Old English hlæhhan, alternative form of hlehhan, hliehhan, from Proto-West Germanic *hlahhjan, from Proto-Germanic *hlahjan?.

Pronunciation

• (primarily Early ME) IPA^(key): /?lax?n/, /?l?x?n/
• IPA^(key): /?lau?x?n/, /?l?i?x?n/, /?li?x?n/

Verb

laughen

1. To laugh; to break out in laughter or laughing.

2. To express glee or joyfulness; to show happiness.

3. (usually with a preposition) To reminisce about; to remember with affection.
4. (rare) To laugh about an incident or thing.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• laughter
• lawghynge

Descendants

• English: laugh
• Scots: lauch
• Yola: leeigh

References

• “laughen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-19.