aa.

n.  volcanic lava with a rough surface.

<I was afire, dry afire, all the inside of me like a burnt cinder, like aa lava, like the harpooner’s tongue dry and gritty with sand.  —Jack London, Island Tales.>

aa-ooo-aa-ooo-aaaa-ooooo.

n.  a coyote’s baying at the moon; a primitive howl in honor of the dead.

<[T]he upturned faces near the stage, awash with the splashover of swirling colors from the light show, seem to glow with enthusiasm and delight, and each time the band takes up a different song there arises from out there in the dark a wild chorus of the hall, whooping and howling and yipping like coyotes baying at the moon, aa-ooo-aa-ooo-aaaa-ooooo, a savage, animal, tribal thing one knows instinctively they do only for the dead, in honor of the dead.  —Ed McClanahan, My Vita, If You Will: The Uncollected Ed McClanahan.>

aaa.

interj.  a cry of pain; see also aaaa, aiee, aiieee.

<“Aaa!”  Gabrielle winced in pain and grabbed her arm, as blood squeezed out between her fingers.  —Tim Wellman, “Killing Time.”>

interj.  a mumble of “vowels without consonants” (John Altman, The Watchmen).

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