Ah
/ɑː/ prefix, interjection, noun, verb, particle
Forms Ahs ahing ahed we mah ar arh
- prefix A prefix of Chinese origin used with a shortened form of given names to express familiarity, roughly equivalent to a nickname. “Ah Ming moved out of Chinatown last year.”
- prefix (US, military, aviation) prefix for attack helicopter, helicopter gunship designations
- interjection An expression of relief, relaxation, comfort, confusion, understanding, wonder, awe, etc. according to uttered inflection. “Ah, I understand now.”
- interjection A syllable used to fill space, particularly in music.
- noun An instance of the interjection ah.
- verb To give a cry of "ah".
- particle (interrogative) Marks a yes–no tag question prompting the listener to clarify or confirm something. “You’re dyslexic ah?”
- particle (interrogative) Reinforces a short, non-rhetorical wh-question. “How do you delete this row ah?”
- particle Emphasizes the need for absolute confirmation, permission or acknowledgment. “Don’t drink and drive ah...”
- particle A particle indicating the topic of a sentence from its comment. “The drilling upstairs ah, non-stop leh.”
- particle A confirmative final particle used in the middle of a sentence to ascertain the continued attention of the listener.
- particle (less common) Tagged at the end of non-interrogative sentence to convey a sense of informality or resignation.
- particle A vocative particle, used for direct address (over telephone calls, or if the addressee is far away). “Hello? Joey ah?”
- particle Used as an intensifier in fixed expressions, sometimes exhortative in meaning. “Heng ah...”
- interjection (Manglish, Singlish) Used condescendingly, somewhat like “see?” or “I told you so”.
- interjection Yuck.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Chinese 阿. Compare Dutch -A-.
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”).
From Hokkien 啊 (--a, a) and Teochew 啊 (a⁷), reinforced by Tamil -ஆ (-ā, etymology 3, particle sense 1) among Tamil speakers (Baskaran, 1988).
Imitative of a person gagging.
Webster’s 1913
- interjection An exclamation, expressive of surprise, pity, complaint, entreaty, contempt, threatening, delight, triumph, etc., according to the manner of utterance.
Etymology [OE. a: cf. OF. a, F. ah, L. ah, Gr. a, Icel. æ, OHG. a, Lith. á, á\'a0.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “Ah”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details