Definition of quash

The origin of the word "quash" dates back to the late 16th century, and it originally referred to the edible seed of a tropical fruit known as courgette or marrow in England. The fruit and its seeds were introduced to the English by the Spanish in the 16th century, and the name "quash" comes from the Taino word "casabi," which is meaningfully likening to the Nahuatl word "xiakhuyalli," both of which were the indigenous languages used by the Taino and Aztec peoples, respectively, in the Caribbean and Mexico. The word's change in meaning from referring to the fruit's edible seeds to describing the legal action of putting an end to a case did not occur until the late 19th century. This change occurred in colonial America, where the phrase "quash a writ" or "quash a process" became a way to indicate that a court found a lawsuit to be legally invalid, dismissed it, and put an end to the legal proceedings once and for all. The use of quash has since spread to other areas of English-speaking legal systems, such as Australian, Canadian, and Irish common law, where it is still in use. In summary, the word "quash" originated from the edible seeds of a tropical fruit brought by the Spanish to England in the late 16th century, and its change in meaning to describe the legal action of putting an end to a case can be traced back to colonial America in the late 19th century.