The word “guffaw”.

The word “guffaw” is not seen often anymore having given way to laughing, chortling and god forbid, giggling. It is unclear exactly what a guffaw sounds like but the adjective boisterous comes to mind, a laugh produced in an unconstrained way, just prior to lapsing into an alcoholic coma. It’s really too bad that a guffaw is not a kind of bird, because then we could describe that day when a flock of guffaws descended upon us, and then shuffled about in that weird little dance they do. But sadly, and with a sly chortle or two, we accept guffaw into our small but growing list of cast aside words. Welcome guffaw, there are plenty of chairs up front.