Etymologically
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crush

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kɹʌʃ/[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English crowsen, cruschen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman crussir, from Old French cruissir (“to gnash the teeth, crash, smash”), croissir,[2][3][4] which is perhaps from Frankish *krostjan, to gnash, with cognates Gothic kriustan and Old Swedish krysta,[3][2][5] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *greus-.[2] Hoad and NODE call the French word of unknown origin.[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To smash or break into fragments: before 1349 in Barnhart, the mid-14th century in Etymonline.[2][3] The OED's first sense, to dash together with violent noise, is from 1398.[7]

Semantic evolution

To compress violently so as to break or bruise is from before 1400,[7] and to overpower or subdue, figuratively, from the mid-14th century.[3] To humiliate or demoralize is by about 1600.[3] The noun, a violent collision, is from the 1590s (1599),[3][2] a thick crowd from 1806,[3] and a person one is infatuated with is American slang from 1884, with to have a crush on by 1903.[3] Italian crosciare and Spanish crujir, to crack, are Germanic loanwords.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1349 – to smash.[2]
  • before 1400 – to squeeze violently.[7]
  • c. 1600 – to humiliate.[3]
  • 1599 – a collision (noun).[2]
  • 1806 – a dense crowd.[3]
  • 1884 – an infatuation.[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

  1. To press hard so as to break, deform or squash.
  2. To defeat or suppress completely.
  3. To make someone feel humiliated or crushed in spirit.
  4. To crowd or squeeze into a small space.

Noun

  1. A dense crowd of people.
  2. (informal) A brief, intense infatuation, or the person who is its object.
  3. A drink made from crushed fruit.

Word family

  • crushable
  • crusher
  • crushingly
  • crushproof
  • crushability
  • crushably
  • crushed velvet

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press