Meaning

noun the sound of laughing

noun the activity of laughing; the manifestation of joy or mirth or scorn

originFrom Middle English laughter, laghter, laȝter, from Old English hleahtor (“laughter, jubilation, derision”), from Proto-Germanic *hlahtraz (“laughter”), from Proto-Indo-European *klek-, *kleg- (“to shout”). Cognate with German Gelächter (“laughter, hilarity, merriment”), Danish and Norwegian latter (“laughter”), Icelandic hlátur (“laughter”). More at laugh.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0