DictionaryRoot: ah
Middle English

ah

cry of distress

1 / 1
An English stage actor in eighteenth-century clothing throws up both hands and cries out sorrowfully over a broken favorite jug.
interjection

alack

uh-LAK/əˈlæk/

An old-fashioned cry of sorrow or regret.

Etymology

On Skeat’s account, this joins ah to lack in its older sense of loss, failure, or shame. Originally an expression of dissatisfaction, alack later became a cry of regret or unpleasant surprise.

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