Chortles

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To produce a joyful sound that resembles laughter mixed with a snicker, often conveying amusement or pleasure
2. To make a sound that uniquely blends laughter with a slight snort, indicating mirth or cheerfulness
3. To laugh in a gleeful manner combining a chuckle and a snort of delight

Etymology: Lewis Carroll invented "chortle" himself, and it first appeared in his nonsense poem "Jabberwocky". He completed the poem in 1855, but it reached readers only in 1871, when it was printed in his novel "Through the Looking-Glass". The poem's narrator, the hero who slays the Jabberwock, is warned to beware the bird and the creature's jaws, and the poem ends with the line that the hero "chortled in his joy", the first recorded use of the word. "Chortles" is simply the third-person singular present form of the verb, so it describes someone who laughs with snorts. Carroll apparently blended "chuckle" and "snort" to make a sound that is neither a clean laugh nor a plain grunt, a compact invention that other English speakers soon adopted.

Synonyms: giggles, cackles, snickers, laughs, chuckles

Antonyms: cries, sobs, mourns, frowns, sighs