Interjections

Again, for expressing our passions, our interjections are very apt and forcible: as, finding ourselves somewhat aggrieved, we cry, Ah; if more deeply, Oh; when we pity, Alas; when we bemoan, Alack ... In detestation we say Fie, as if therewithal we should spit; in attention, Ha; in calling, Whoop; in hallowing, Wahahow; all which (in my ear) seem to be derived from the very natures of those several affections.

Richard Carew (1555–1620)

from The Excellency of the English Tongue (1605)

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