Etymograph

English

crash

Crash comes from Middle English crasshen.

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500crasshen1
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1945crash1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English crash
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1945, Mario Pei, The American Road to Peace: A Constitution for the World: “And the unvarying lesson of history is that all…”.

Lineage

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500crasshenWiktionary, English crash
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1945crashWiktionary, English crash. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1945, Mario Pei, The American Road to Peace: A Constitution for the World: “And the unvarying lesson of history is that all…”

The story

Perhaps from a variant of earlier *crasken, from crasen (‘to break’) + -k (formative suffix); or from earlier *craskien, *craksien, a variant of craken (‘to crack, break open’) (for form development compare break, brask, brash).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Every English word from Middle English crasshen

Today it means

noun A sudden, intense, loud sound, as made for example by cymbals.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “crash”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Middle English crasshen / crash

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