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Origin and history of squash

squash(v.)

"to crush, squeeze," early 14c., squachen, from Old French esquacher, variant of esquasser, escasser, escachier "to crush, shatter, destroy, break," from Vulgar Latin *exquassare, from Latin ex "out" (see ex-) + quassare "to shatter" (see quash "to crush").

Perhaps it has been partly conformed to quash (v.). "In some senses, however, perhaps partly or mainly of imitative origin" [OED]. English squ- words of more or less imitative origin sometimes have echoes in qu- : squelch/quelch, quag and obsolete squagen "make a stain or smudge" (c. 1500). Related: Squashed; squashing.

also from early 14c.

squash(n.1)

gourd fruit of certain trailing plants, 1640s, shortened borrowing from Narraganset (Algonquian) askutasquash, literally "the things that may be eaten raw," from askut "green, raw, uncooked" + asquash "eaten," in which the -ash is a plural affix (compare succotash). The squash-bug (1807) feeds on its leaves.

also from 1640s

squash(n.2)

1590s, used of soft, unripe things; 1610s, "act of squashing a soft substance," from squash (v.), later also "drink made from crushed fruit." The racket game was called by that name by 1899; earlier (1886) it was the name of the soft rubber ball used in it.

also from 1590s

Entries linking to squash

quag(n.)

"marshy spot," 1580s, a variant of Middle English quabbe "a marsh, bog, shaking marshy soil," from Old English *cwabba "shake, tremble" (like something soft and flabby). Related: Quaggy.

quash(v.)

the modern English word is a merger of two words, both in Middle English as quashen, from two unrelated Latin verbs.

1. "to suppress, overcome" (mid-13c.); "to make void, annul, nullify, veto" (mid-14c.), from Old French quasser, quassier, casser "to annul, declare void," and directly from Medieval Latin quassare, alteration of Late Latin cassare, from cassus "null, void, empty" (according to Watkins from extended form of PIE root *kes- "to cut"). The meaning "subdue, put down summarily" is from c. 1600.

2. "to break, crush, beat to pieces" early 14c., from Old French quasser, casser "to break, smash, destroy; maltreat, injure, harm, weaken," from Latin quassare "to shatter, shake or toss violently," frequentative of quatere (past participle quassus) "to shake." According to Watkins this is from PIE root *kwet- "to shake" (source also of Greek passein "to sprinkle," Lithuanian kutėti "to shake up," Old Saxon skuddian "to move violently," German schütteln "to shake," Old English scudan "to hasten").

In Medieval Latin, quassare often was used for cassare, and in later French the form of both words is casser. The words in English now are somewhat, or entirely, fused. Related: Quashed; quashing.