Squish
/skwɪʃ/noun
To crush, compress, or make a soft, wet, squeezing sound.
Did you know?Squish is an expressive English sound-symbolic word, meaning its form was shaped to imitate the sensation and sound of something soft being pressed rather than inherited from a single ancient root.
Etymological Timeline
17th Century
English
squish
“An expressive word for a soft crushing or splashing sound, and the action that makes it.”
16th–17th Century
English
squash
“To crush or press flat; likely influenced by earlier English sound-symbolic forms.”
16th Century
English
squelch
“A noisy, squashing sound or the act of making one.”
16th Century
English
squawk
“A harsh, shrill cry; another expressive English formation with the same sound pattern.”
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*squei- / *squeg- (uncertain expressive base)
“No secure single ancestral root is established; the word family is largely onomatopoeic and expressive.”