40
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2024
40 points (87.0% liked)
Ask Lemmy
26903 readers
1818 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
That doesn’t really help. I know what “squashing” something means. If simply squashing a fruit was the definition, then I’d like a source. However, one source said “squash” generic term came from a drink called “lemon squash”. Simply squashing a fruit doesn’t necessarily jive with a drink name.
E: y’all downvoters aren’t acting in the best interests of scientific process. Just because you feel squash=crush fruit=squash doesn’t mean it’s right, I’m looking for evidence, not just feels. You might be right, but I want proof.
I'm afraid prepared foods and drinks don't always have the sort of etymological provenance you seem to be seeking. When was the verb squash first used as a noun to denote a drink? A quick search of Google Books shows the earliest literature mentioning squash is The Adventures of Cooroo, a Native of the Pellew Islands from 1805. From a glance it appears to be known as an alcoholic drink at the time, and is mentioned without explanation so it was part of the popular lexicon and could have been used for years before that.
From there it morphed into your aforementioned "lemon squash" in the late 1800s, which seemed to be a nonalcoholic drink made from crushed lemons and soda water. By at least 1897 recipes for squash mentioned "essences" of lime- and lemon- squash so it is easy to see that transitioning to the sweet flavored syrup by 1938 when Ribena first produced your Blackcurrant Squash.
It becomes even more murky when you search for cordial, which appears much earlier and also denoting an alcoholic drink(Although cordial seems to have first had a more medical use).
Thank you. That’s probably the best “as close as we can get” answer without actually getting an answer.
Might be one for /askhistorians on Reddit.
If you are going to pose the question to a more academic circle I'd advise specificity. "When was the word 'squash' first used to denote a beverage?" is a good question, or even "How did squash turn from an alcoholic drink to the nonalcoholic drink base we know of today?"; My uneducated guess is the temperance movement may have had a hand in that.
All good points. Thank you.