Where does “squash” come from?
Squash comes from Middle English squachen, from Old French esquacher, from Vulgar Latin excoactiare, formed from Latin ex- and cogo (to drive), which derives from ago (to drive), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European h₂eǵ-.
squash (English): A sport played in a walled court with a soft...
Definitions
- A sport played in a walled court with a soft...
Ancestry of “squash”, step by step
squash traces back through 3 separate lines of ancestry.
via Middle English squachen
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | squachen | — |
| 2 | Old French | esquacher | — |
| 3 | Vulgar Latin | excoactiare | — |
| 4 | Latin | ex | A name of the letter "X"; out of, from |
| 5 | Latin | commūnicō | to impart, share |
| 6 | Latin | commūnis | common, commonplace, ordinary, general, universal, shared, shared alike, of both sides, belonging to two or more together |
| 7 | Old Latin | com(m)oinis | — |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | kommoinis | common |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱom-moy-ni- | held in common |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱóm | beside, near, by, with |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 12 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 13 | German | kitt | putty certain kinds of cement used for fixing e.g. window panes |
| 14 | Old High German | kuti | — |
| 15 | Proto-West Germanic | kwidu | gum, resin |
| 16 | Proto-Germanic | kweduz | resin |
| 17 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷet- | resin, gum; to say, speak |
via English musquash
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | musquash | The muskrat, "Ondatra zibethicus" |
| 2 | Abenaki | moskwas | muskrat, musquash |
| 3 | Proto-Algonquian | *waʔšaškwa | muskrat |
via Narragansett askútasquash
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Narragansett | askútasquash | — |