Translation Article 674, Idiom “crush” as a noun meaning infatuation. Definitions, Origins, Translations to Spanish and Portuguese.

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Translation Article 674, Idiom “crush” as a noun meaning infatuation. ?Definitions, Origins, Translations to Spanish and Portuguese.

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1) crush (noun)

Definitions

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the noun “crush” has a total of 14 meanings, 2 of which are obsolete. However, the meaning that interests us here is the one meaning puppy love or an interim feeling of love that is transient and does not last a long time. Following is the definition as found in the Britannica Dictionary:

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“Britannica Dictionary definition of CRUSH

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[count]

a?:?a strong feeling of romantic love for someone that is usually not expressed and does not last a long time

? The person who has a crush is usually young or is behaving or feeling like a young person.

• a childhood?crush
• a?schoolgirl crush?[=romantic feelings felt by a schoolgirl or by someone who is being compared to a schoolgirl]

—?often +?on

• All through high school I had a?crush on?the art teacher.
• I think he's got a?crush on?her.

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Origin

A very thorough explanation of this sense of “crush” is provided in English Language and Usage in January, 2013:

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This is covered quite thoroughly in a?column in The Globe and Mail by Warren Clements. Summarizing:

1. The romantic sense of crush was?first recorded in the 1884?journal of Isabella Maud Rittenhouse.
2. According to Eric Partidge,?crush might have been a variation on mash, since by 1870?mashed?was a popular way of saying?flirtatious or head over heels in love, and?to crush something?was to?mash it.
3. How did mash acquire that meaning??The Oxford English Dictionary?shoots down?one line of speculation found in an 1890 slang dictionary: the suggestion of a?Romani word mash or masherava, meaning?to allure or entice.
4. Ernest Weekley’s 1921 Etymological dictionary of modern English observed that?mash was “regarded as spoon-diet,”?the sort of mashed pap one would feed to a person who couldn’t chew or tolerate regular food. He drew a link to the word?spoony.
5. To be spoony on someone?had, since the 1820s, meant to be foolishly or sentimentally amorous, drawing on the earlier meaning of spoony as simple or goofy.?To spoon with a lady?was to make goo-goo eyes and whisper baby talk to her in the hope of future considerations.

Clements concludes:

This origin tale requires a couple of leaps of faith – crush to mash, mash to spoony – but as a story it hangs together.

The 1884 date is?confirmed via etymonline:

1590s, "act of crushing," from crush (v.). Meaning "thick crowd" is from 1806. Sense of "person one is infatuated with" is first recorded?1884; to have a crush on is from 1913.

A relevant entry from the?Routledge Dictionary of Historical Slang by Eric Partridge?read:

mash. A sweetheart: 1882. Also?MASHER.?2. A dandy: from ca. 1883;

v.t., occ. v.i. To court or ogle or (attempt to) fascinate a girl or a woman; not often used of a woman 'bewitching' a man: 1882, Leland, 'These black-eyed beauties' — Gypsies — 'by mashing men for many generations ....'; ob. Prob. ex the S.E. sense, to crush, pound, smash utterly, but perhaps, as Leland suggests, ex Romany?mash?(masher-ava), to allure, entice. Orig. (ca. 1860), U.S.

There are a number of other variants and phrases based on?mash?with similar connotations.

ODO's entry for?masher?corroborates this sense:

informal a dandy of late Victorian or Edwardian times. North American informal?a man who makes unwelcome sexual advances to women.

Origin:

late 19th century: probably a derivative of slang mash 'attract sexually', 'infatuation', perhaps from Romany masherava 'allure'

(Unless the OED differs drastically from the ODO in this matter, the origin stated above contradicts Clements' claim that the OED does not subscribe to this theory.)”

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A translation into Spanish for the above meaning of “crush” is:

1) enoramiento pasajero

[passing infatuation]

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A translation into Portuguese for the above meaning of “crush” is:

1) paix?o cega

[blind passion]

infatuation

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Sources

https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/crush

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/106224/etymology-of-crush

Oxford Portuguese Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2015.

Word Magic Complete and Unabridged English-Spanish Dictionary 8.8.0 2020 by Word Magic Software, Ltda.

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