To crash is to hit something hard and suddenly, causing damage or noise; it can also mean for a computer or system to stop working suddenly.
Probably imitative in origin, echoing the loud, smashing sound of a violent impact. It has been used for physical collisions since at least the 15th century, and later extended to computers and economies.
‘Crash’ is a sound word that turned into a whole family of disasters—car crashes, market crashes, computer crashes. In each case, something moving fast meets a limit it can’t handle, and the system shatters.
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