This goes back a bit, but several of us were wondering on the origin
of the term "ha-ha."  We had decided (I think) that it was based on a French
hunting cry that roughly translates as "look out."
        Well, I was re-reading J.F.C Fuller's chapter on the siege of
Orleans in 1429, when I came across the following letter from Joan of Arc to
Lord Talbot: "Messire vous mande que vous en aliez en vostre pays, car c'est
son plaisir, ou sinon je vous feray ung tel hahay...."  Fuller doesn't bother
to translate, but roughly: "God demands that you go back to your country, as
this is what he desires, or else I will make unto you such a 'hahay' ...."
        Well, this rambled a bit, but I just thought it was interesting that
the term - in its original meaning - goes back at least as far as the early
15th century.
 
Alasdair M. Brooks
Archaeology Lab Supervisor
Jefferson's Poplar Forest