ah

ah · interjection, noun, verb¹

1. Old French · derived froma“ah!, oh!, hey!”
2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*a
3. Old English · inherited fromēa
4. Middle English · inherited fromah
5. English todayah

From Middle English ah, aa, a (“ah”), of imitative origin, or from Old English ēa, *eah (“oh, alas”), from Proto-West Germanic *a, *ah (“ah”). Earliest recorded use is circa 1175 in the Ormulum: A, Maȝȝstre! icc wat tatt tu full wiss Arrt Godess Sune ("Ah, Master! I know for sure that thou art God's Son"). Some propose that the Middle English is borrowed from Old French a (“ah!, oh!, hey!”) (represented by modern French ah). Compare also West Frisian a, ah (“ah”), Dutch a, ah (“ah”), Middle Low German a (“ah”), Old High German a, aa, ah (“ah, oh”) (whence modern German ah), Faroese áh (“oh, ah, alas”), Icelandic æ, ai (“ah, oh”), Latin ah (“ah”).

ah · particle, interjection²

1. Teochew · borrowed from啊
2. Hokkien · borrowed from啊
3. English todayah

From Hokkien 啊 (--a, a) and Teochew 啊 (a⁷), reinforced by Tamil -ஆ (-ā, etymology 3, particle sense 1) among Tamil speakers (Baskaran, 1988).

ah · interjection³

Imitative of a person gagging.

Ah · prefix⁴

1. Chinese · borrowed from阿
2. Chinese · borrowed from阿
3. English todayAh

Borrowed from Chinese 阿. Compare Dutch -A-.

Words from the same roots