Etymology

lah

L1A1H4

Today it means: Placed at the end of a sentence to accentuate the mood or attitude of the speaker. Full definition →

First used mid-20th c.Malay lah
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

lah · noun1

An anglicised spelling of la.

lah · particle2

  1. Malay · derived fromlah
  2. English todaylah

From Malay lah, Hokkien 啦 (--la) and Cantonese 啦 (laa¹). Doublet of la in colloquial Hong Kong English. Lim (2007) lists multiple sources: * Bazaar Malay, for its use as a particle of emphasis (akin to Malay lah), and the senses expressing commands, invitations and "solidarity, familiarity [and] informality". * Hokkien 啦 (--la), which indicates finality, completion and confirmation-seeking, as well as "emphasis, persuasiveness, dismissiveness [and] listing". * Cantonese 啦 (laa¹), expressing a "general lack of definiteness or forcefulness", and for its role in softening commands.

First known use, by meaning

  • from mid-20th c. Placed at the end of a sentence to accentuate the mood or attitude of the speaker.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.