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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

Homeric laughter en · NOUN

Etymology

With reference to the "unquenchable laughter" (ἄσβεστος (ásbestos, “unceasing”) γέλως (gélōs, “laughter”)) of the gods in e.g. Iliad I. 599, Odyssey XX. 346.

Meanings

  1. (uncountable) Boisterous laughter, prolonged belly laughing; long or uncontrollable laughing.
    • But the Professor! He ought to have exploded in a burst of Homeric laughter, or else to have shaken his head at her and warned her where little girls go to who do this sort of thing. 1916, Jerome K. Jerome, chapter III, in Malvina of Brittany:
    • The words were scarcely out of her mouth, when they were greeted with a roar of Homeric laughter that literally shook the room, and this time not at the expense of the innocent speaker. 1873, Charles Reade, chapter VI, in A Simpleton: A Story of the Day […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 193:

Relateds

Homeric laugh

Translations (7)

nl homerische lach (boisterous laughter) · ro râs homeric (boisterous laughter) · fr rire homérique (boisterous laughter) · de homerisches Gelächter (boisterous laughter) · nl homerisch gelach (boisterous laughter) · pl homerycki śmiech (boisterous laughter) · ru гомери́ческий хо́хот (boisterous laughter)