DOUG'S WORD OF THE WEEK

chortle / chawr-tl / verb: 1. (used without object) to chuckle gleefully. 2. (used with object) to express with a gleeful chuckle: to chortle one's joy. noun: 3. a gleeful chuckle.

Notes & Etymology: 'O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy." Perhaps Lewis Carroll would chortle a bit himself to find that people are still using the word chortle, which he coined in Through the Looking-Glass, published in 1872. In any case, Carroll had constructed his word well, combining the words chuckle and snort. This type of word is called a blend or a portmanteau word. In Through the Looking-Glass Humpty Dumpty uses portmanteau to describe the word slithy, saying, "It's like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word" (the meanings being "lithe" and "slimy").
-"chortle." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. -

Usage: “They socialize, eat, argue, sing and dance, chortle at the risqué gags of cabaret entertainers, try their best to maintain the colony’s aging physical plant, care for ailing spouses and — like most people in their ’80s and ’90s — look death in the face on a daily basis. "
In the Catskills, Holocaust Survivors Forge a Bond; The New York Times; Nov. 11, 2009.