A growing assortment of words and definitions used in the Early Modern era. See the Guide for more information.
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Haha
Apart from the sound of laughter, but perhaps arising as an exclamation of surprise, haha has been used since the 17th century (also aha, ah ah,ha! ha!, hahah, haw-haw) for a sunken fence, a trench, ditch, or other boundary to a garden that does not obstruct the view and is not visible until one is nigh into it. R. S. Surtees in SPONGE'S SPANISH TOUR (1852) tells of a hound that ran a black cart-colt, and made him leap the hawhaw. The word was also used figuratively; Mason in his EPISTLE TO SIR W. CHAMBERS (1773) wrote: Leap each ha-ha of truth and common sense. It became an 18th century fashion, as Daniel Defoe noted in his TOUR OF GREAT BRITAIN (1769) to be throwing down the walls of the garden, and making, instead of them, hawhaw walls.
