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I had a hard time finding the English origin of this interjection and how it technically should be written. I am often ridiculed in written conversations, especially those that are informal, because I might reply to something funny with, "Ha ha ha." It seems as if the accepted way to colloquially spell this is "hahaha."

When asked about it, I actually admitted that the original spelling might have been something like "ha-ha-ha," similar to how "goodbye" seems to have been originally written as "good-bye."

What is the correct way?

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    Which “ha ha” do you mean? The one that’s a minor third descending, or the one that’s a perfect fourth ascending?
    – tchrist ♦
    Mar 16, 2013 at 18:11

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ODO has “ha ha”. Normal rules of capitalization, punctuation and the like apply, so a complete interjection might be written “Ha ha ha!”

As an onomatopaeic word, it would be possible to join the individual sounds together to get hahaha but this is more suited to less formal environments.

Don’t hyphenate it, because a ha-ha is something rather different.

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    There was no original spelling. Interjections are outside the conventions of English spelling because they are all sound, no meaning. Identify the sound and you get (some of) the meaning. hahaha is the accepted form among your friends, so if you want to be like your friends (which is the normal reason for learning a new language/dialect/convention), txt like your friends. After all, that's all they're seeing; that's you.
    – John Lawler
    Mar 16, 2013 at 16:11
  • wiktionary shows a cross-sectional view of a ha-ha or haha and shows both spellings for it, while wikipedia only shows hyphenated form.
    – James Waldby - jwpat7
    Mar 16, 2013 at 19:33
  • @John Lawler: I don't want to be like my friends. I just wanted a justification for using the spelling I preferred. :)
    – user4012
    Mar 16, 2013 at 21:12
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    You don't need one, then. You can make up your own. Nihil Obstat
    – John Lawler
    Mar 16, 2013 at 22:06