a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 9651 (MED) Aha! þat wreche wit-vten freind!

c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Wife of Bath's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) Prol. l. 576 A .ha. by god, I haue my tale ageyn.

Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 8 A-ha, evax.

1509 Parlyament Deuylles (de Worde) sig. B.ii^v A ha sayd Adam, my god I se.

1573 T. Cooper Briefe Expos. f. 53^v Aha, I am well warmed, I haue beene at the fire.

1611 Bible (King James) Ps. xxxv. 21 Yea they opened their mouth wide against me, and saide, Aha, Aha, our eye hath seene it. View more context for this quotation

a1681 J. Lacy Sr. Hercules Buffoon (1684) ii. iv. 17 Aha Sirrah, here's Learning in this, 'tis ingenious and admirable.

1762 T. Smollett Adventures Sir Launcelot Greaves I. vi. 131 Aha! do'st thou tip me the traveller, my boy?

1799 W. Scott tr. J. W. von Goethe Goetz of Berlichingen iii. 127 Aha! there comes a red gowned rascal to ask me whether I will be a scoundrel!

1822 Sat. Evening Post (Philadelphia) 18 May 1/3 Aha! you have been about mischief, my chap; what did you do, eh?

1864 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1865) I. ii. i. 171 She..cried, with a waggish shake of her head: ‘Aha! Caught you spying, did I?’

1929 M. de la Roche Whiteoaks xiv. 188 Aha..that's what I like to hear! Young lads racketing about!

1970 A. Gray Unlikely Stories (1984) 21 Where's my dog? Aha, there he is below the table!

2002 J. McGahern That they may face Rising Sun (2003) 171 ‘Did you get the loan or not? Yes or no?’ ‘We didn't.’ ‘Aha, I knew it,’ he said triumphantly.

1895 J. C. Tucker Golden Goal & Other Sketches 88 Simply uttering an ‘Ah, ha!’ of recognition of his..conqueror from the border State.

1907 W. De Morgan Alice-for-Short 110 Whereon Robin lets loose a sly perspicuous ‘Aha!’

1968 A. Sonnenfeld in H. J. Mooney & T. F. Staley Shapeless God ix. 191 The priest could not suppress an ‘Aha’.

1988 Alcalde (Univ. Texas) Sept.–Oct. 9/1 There are hundreds of interesting things about the University that most people don't know—the kind of things which..bring forth an ‘Ah-ha’ when somebody hears them for the first time.

1991 L. L. Nash in C. R. Christensen et al. Educ. for Judgment xiii. 240 One of the most effective ways of provoking an aha! is to present a new puzzle whose solution rests on material learned more than a month earlier.

2002 Washington Post (Nexis) 6 Oct. c1 Each discovery was punctuated with an ‘Aha!’

1980 T. Galanoy Charge It iv. 61 Stuck with some outstanding debt, McNamara was discussing recovery possibilities at lunch one day with his attorney, when he had an ‘aha!’

1994 New York Mag. 9 May 64/1 Knowing a story will end in revelations—shocking, meaningful ahas! that will cast light on what's come before.

2000 S. P. Zackheim Getting your Bk. published for Dummies iii. 40 Create an ‘aha’ for the reader. A title can work if a reader..feels that the title captures a truth that had been hidden before and is suddenly revealed.

1923 P. J. W. Pigors tr. W. Eliasberg in Psychol. Bull. 20 433 This ‘Aha-experience’ of insight bears a close resemblance to the well-known ‘water experience’ of Helen Keller.

1980 Dædalus Spring 131 Those famous moments of inspiration, one-liners, and ‘Aha!’ experiences that creativity studies cite.

2003 R. Smilkstein We're born to Learn vi. 149 The learner..has an ‘aha’ experience and can say, ‘Oh, now I see how these areas relate!’

2007 D. S. Wilson Evol. for Everyone xxiv. 190 Here is how he describes his aha experience in the introduction to our edited volume.