Crush (slang)

A crush is a slang word for a person for which one feels affection.

History

The word comes from English slang, in which "crush" means a strong infatuation or crush, usually non-reciprocal.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, crush appeared as a noun appeared in the 14th century and referred to "a noise of violent percussion," such as rumbling or crashing, a noise element that was lost to the verb crash. By the early 1600s, crush meant "a violent compression or pressure that knocks down, breaks, injures, or destroys." As a verb, "crush" can mean to compress or squeeze with force. In The New York Times, one early use was in 1906 when a boy was reported as not crying when a train "crushed his toes". The emotional use of the word, in which one is "crushed" by anxiety or other negative emotions, developed simultaneously. Thomas Moffett wrote in 1599 "the hart-breake crush of melancholies wheele.”

The first recorded use of crush in a romantic sense is commonly considered 1884 in the journal of Isabella Maud Rittenhouse: "Wintie is weeping because her crush is gone".

By 1895, crush referred to infatuation itself, as used by John Seymour Wood in Yale yarns: "Miss Palfrey ... consented to wear his bunch of blue violets. It was a 'crush,' you see, on both sides". Eric Partridge has proposed that crush emerged as a variant of mash, which was used in phrases such as on the mash and make a mash with someone to refer to flirting, as well as masher to mean a cunning, flirtatious man. Crush was reportedly used as a verb by 1913. The song "I've Got a Crush on You", with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, debuted on Broadway in 1928.

According to a study by the Zen content platform, "crash" is one of the most popular slang words among Russians aged 14 to 25, with 63% of respondents using it in their communication.