for ha, ha’, a worn-down form of HAVE (cf. French a from habet) when unaccented or obscure in compound verbal forms, or where the independent meaning is sunk in a phrase, as might a been, would a said, should a thought, a done! = have done, a mind! = have a mind. Exceedingly frequent in 13–17th c.; in later times chiefly in representations of colloquial or familiar speech, in which it is still often said, though not written, except in specimens of local dialects, where also, under literary influence, it is generally spelt ha, ha’, although no h is pronounced.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 1177. A mynde on me lord, for þi moder love help me.
1366. Maundev., viii. 86. The Iewes wolde a stoned him.
c. 1400. Apol. for Lollards. I knowlech to a felid & seid þus.
1468. Cov. Myst., 38 (1841). Ha don; and answere me as tyght.
1477. Earl Rivers, Dictes (Caxton), 13. & might a made you as euil as he.
1543. Supp. to Hardyng, 105. Richard might … a saved hymself, if he would a fled awaie.
1556. Chron. Grey Friars, 28. The byshoppe shulde a come agayne to Powlles, & a preched agayne.
1684. Bunyan, Pilg., II. 84. I might a had Husbands afore now, tho’ I spake not of it.
1864. Tennyson, Northern Farmer. I done my duty by un, as I ’a done by the lond.
1864. Mrs. Lloyd, Ladies of Polcarrow, 149. We would a-had ‘hurrahs’ and a tar-barrel, Miss Loveday, ma’am.
