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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cachinnation

Cachinnation \Cach`in*na"tion\ (k[a^]k`[i^]n*n[=a]"sh[u^]n), n. [L. cachinnatio, fr. cachinnare to laugh aloud, cf. Gr. kacha`zein.] Loud or immoderate laughter; -- often a symptom of hysterical or maniacal affections.

Hideous grimaces . . . attended this unusual cachinnation.
--Sir W. Scott.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
cachinnation

"loud laughter," 1620s, from Latin cachinnationem (nominative cachinnatio) "violent laughter, excessive laughter," noun of action from past participle stem of cachinnare "to laugh immoderately or loudly," of imitative origin. Compare Sanskrit kakhati "laughs," Greek kakhazein "to laugh loudly," Old High German kachazzen, English cackle, Armenian xaxanc'.

Wiktionary
cachinnation

n. convulsive, loud laughter.

WordNet
cachinnation

n : loud convulsive laughter

Usage examples of "cachinnation".

I began to laugh, Larry joined me, and then Kra and Gulk joined in our merriment with deep batrachian cachinnations and gruntings.

After midnight their shrill notes burst into a kind of pandemoniac cachinnation which filled all the countryside, and not until dawn did they finally quiet down.

And at black midnight, from the lonely cross-roads where he turned from town into his own place, came his plaguey cachinnations to rouse me from my sleep and make me writhe and clench my nails into my palms.

I began to laugh, Larry joined me, and then Kra and Gulk joined in our merriment with deep batrachian cachinnations and gruntings.

And also simultaneous the outbreak of the class into cachinnations of delight, severely repressed by the perplexed but indignant Miss Spence.

Half the enjoyment of the evening lay, to some of those present, in listening to the hearty cachinnation of the people, who only found out the jokes some two or three minutes after they were made, and who laughed apparently at some grave statements of fact.

It is the distinctive privilege of man to exert his voice during his repast, and to indulge also in those specially human cachinnations which no lower creature, except that disreputable Australian biped known as the 'laughing jackass,' presumes to imitate.

He is unable to tell us, said one of the women, setting off the cachinnation once more.