Quick Fire Questions (A Place to Ask and Answer)

[Hex]

Is there a word to describe a laugh that isn't really a laugh? Sort of 'he laughed mirthlessly' but not.

I tried half-laugh, but the rhyme makes it comical; I tried almost-laugh, but that didn't totally work either. I ended up using 'grimaced' (as in not-smile) but that wasn't what I wanted.

So: is there a 'grimace' equivalent for laugh?

[HareBrain]

I've used, "She grunted a laugh" before, but I'm not sure that gets across what you want (but maybe you could use something more appropriate in place of "grunted").

English is very deficient in verbs for different kinds of laughter, in my opinion.

[Ursa major]

Could you be a bit more specific about this laugh? In particular, why the laugh isn't a full one. Is she only partly amused? Is she too sad to really laugh? Is she (not quite) laughing at or with someone? Is she trying to stifle her laugh? Or hide it? Is she meant to be laughing (group pressure) but is of a different mind?

[Hex]

Lemme see.

The guy has been trying to get himself killed for the last year or so, and the mc just asked him to stop trying -- he's laughing (or not) because he hates the idea of going on, and he thinks she doesn't know what she's asking.

It's maybe not even as much as a laugh, maybe more of an exhalation -- but a bit more than that too. I can make the sound I mean (although admittedly it's a bit insane to be sitting at my computer not-laughing at it) but I can't describe it. Can you sigh a laugh? Hmm.

Maybe, like HB suggests, the word doesn't exist in English. Maybe I should make one up.

[HareBrain]

Why don't you include the below paragraph as a footnote?

Originally Posted by Hex

It's maybe not even as much as a laugh, maybe more of an exhalation -- but a bit more than that too. I can make the sound I mean (although admittedly it's a bit insane to be sitting at my computer not-laughing at it) but I can't describe it. Can you sigh a laugh? Hmm.

[springs]

I use humourlessly sometimes

[Hex]

Originally Posted by HareBrain

Why don't you include the below paragraph as a footnote?

Why a footnote? I could put it in the text, just in a tiny size:

"No!" I cried, flinging my glorious auburn hair back so it streamed like a pennant in the wind. "I cannot bear for you to leave me so forlorn!"

He laughed It's maybe not even as much as a laugh, maybe more of an exhalation -- but a bit more than that too. I can make the sound I mean (although admittedly it's a bit insane to be sitting at my computer not-laughing at it) but I can't describe it. Can you sigh a laugh? Hmm. "You know not what ye ask, young wench...."

And so on.

Perhaps 'humourlessly' is what I'm after... A humourless half-laugh...

[Boneman]

A sneering laugh might work... Or a snort... ah, wrong smiley...

A sarcastic laugh?

[HareBrain]

This is a separate, new question.

Originally Posted by HareBrain

Why don't you include the below paragraph as a footnote?

Was that correct English, what I did there? Obviously "paragraph below" and "following paragraph" would be, but "below paragraph"? Is that trying to use a preposition as an adjective?

I have a feeling I do that quite a lot for some reason. Should I stop myself?

[Venusian Broon]

Sardonic - characterised by irony, mocking or derision - springs to mind

[Boneman]

Originally Posted by HareBrain

This is a separate, new question.



Was that correct English, what I did there? Obviously "paragraph below" and "following paragraph" would be, but "below paragraph"? Is that trying to use a preposition as an adjective?

I have a feeling I do that quite a lot for some reason. Should I stop myself?

Well if you don't, the editor will... it does jar a bit, whereas the two alternatives sound spot-on. But you are reaching out to YA readers, innit?

[Hex]

Hmm. He's supposed to be nice and noble and not even sneer when people are being incredibly stupid. Perhaps more 'despairing', but he's obviously despairing and I was looking for the sort of laugh rather than the description of the sort of laugh (which makes almost no sense).

HB: no. The above sentence was fine.

[psychotick]

Hi,

He let out a small laugh, a cynical sound with no real warmth in it.

[Vertigo]

I think I would go with VB's sardonic is always the word I think of when thinking about a humourless laugh: He laughed sardonically. That gives me a feeling of no humour and even a touch of bitterness.

[The Judge]

Is it a kind of noise made a the back of the throat without opening the mouth, like a unvocalised "Huh"? (Not to be confused with a "Hrumph" noise made by old Colonels in Victorian melodramas, since it's higher pitched, and with a sardonic, mordant edge.)

If so, then I've used "grunted" before and couldn't find anything better. If you want to be long-winded it could be "part-laugh, part grunt" but I can't easily get a verb out of that. If it's a real laugh, then "laughed without amusement" or "with an edge of..." whatever.



HB: Yes. Stop at once.