squish

Etymology

Most dictionaries see an imitative or expressive formation.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The OED compares squish-squash and suggests that in the sense "to squeeze" it may be a modified form of the obsolete verbs squiss, recorded in 1558, or squize.^[2][8] Others take it as probably an alteration from English of squash,^{[9][10][11][12]} Merriam-Webster Unabridged adding the influence of squirt.^[13] Etymonline and Barnhart suggest the influence of squiss, to squeeze or crush.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To squeeze or squash: 1647, in H. Hexham's English–Dutch dictionary.^[2][8] Etymonline dates the verb to the 1640s.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The OED marks the first sense, to squeeze, as now dialectal and colloquial.^[2][3] From before 1825, in Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia, the verb was used of water or soft mud giving out a gushing or splashing sound when walked in, and of liquid squirting out with such a sound;^[2][8] in 1952 it was first used of a person making his way with a squishing sound.^[2] Wright's dialect dictionary found the word in Scotland and across the Midlands, East Anglia and the south and south-west of England, in the forms squeesh in Scotland and squich in Gloucestershire, with compounds such as squish-gun, a syringe, in Wiltshire, and squish-squash, the noise of walking through mud.^[14] The noun first meant marmalade, in Oxford and Cambridge slang recorded in 1874,^[2][8][15] and a squishing sound from 1902.^[2][8] The 20th century added the slang sense "nonsense" (1912), an engineering term for the flow of the mixture into the combustion chamber of some engines (1934), and a linguistic term for a continuum between categories such as parts of speech (1972).^[2] The adjective squishy is recorded from 1847.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1647 – to squeeze, to squash.^[2][8]
• before 1825 – of water or mud, to make a gushing or splashing sound when walked in.^[2][8]
• 1874 – noun, marmalade, in university slang.^[2][8]
• 1902 – noun, a squishing sound.^[2][8]
• 1912 – noun, nonsense (slang).^[2]
• 1934 – noun, in engineering, the forced flow of the mixture into the combustion chamber.^[2]
• 1952 – of a person, to move along with a squishing sound.^[2]
• 1972 – noun, in linguistics, a continuum between categories.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To squash or squeeze something soft, often so that it makes a wet sound: She squished the berry between her fingers.^[13][4][2]
2. Of mud, water or wet shoes, to make a soft splashing or sucking sound when walked in; to squelch.^[13][4][2]
3. (colloquial) To move along with such a sound: We squished across the flooded meadow.^[2]

Noun

1. A soft squashing or squelching sound.^[13][4][2]
2. (slang) Nonsense.^[2]
3. (linguistics) A continuum between categories, such as parts of speech, that are usually treated as separate.^[2]

Word family

• squishy

Related words

• squash
• squirt

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray