Etymograph

English

squash

Squash comes from Middle English squachen, and goes back to Latin ex.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEex
  2. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*excoāctiārereconstructed
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400esquacher
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500squachen
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1848squash

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Earlier history not traced here.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEex
  2. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*excoāctiārereconstructed
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400esquacher
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500squachen
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1848squash

Earliest quotation: 1848, The Lotus: “[…] rain, too, had lately fallen, and had decidedly…”

The story

Probably influenced by Middle English quashen, quassen, from Old French esquasser, escasser (‘to crush, shatter, destroy, break’), from Vulgar Latin *exquassare, from Latin ex- + quassare (‘to shatter’) (see quash).

Linked words

through Latin ex

exchange, ex, extort, extenuating, affray, excommunicate, enunciation, 11 more

Another origin of squash

  1. Narragansettmodernaskutasquash‘􂀿a vegetable􂁀 eaten green (or raw)’
  2. Englishtodaysquash

Today it means

noun A sport played in a walled court with a soft rubber ball and bats like tennis racquets.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin ex / squash

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