The First Meaning of ‘Crush’ Came Long Before a ‘First Crush’

The term “girl” came into popular usage in England in the 1880s to describe working-class unmarried women who occupied an emerging social space between childhood and adulthood. Not quite a child, she was childlike in that she had yet to become a wife or mother, the type of modern urbanite who engaged in “frivolous” pursuits like consumption, leisur

Rather, a crush is a way to take up space, and to make something about yourself known to the world.

But then again, she said, few could have predicted the endurance of the slang word “cool” as a marker for all things generally good or fashionable. Researchers say it emerged nearly a century ago in the 1930s jazz scene, retreated from time to time over the decades, but kept coming back.

Before 1800, there wasn’t even a word for loneliness as we know it today. The word “lonely” described the state of being alone, rather than the exquisite pain of it.

Lexicographers can grow inured to slurs while defining them—how many times can you read the word “bitch” before it stops even looking like an English word?—but