As a noun, a crowd is a large group of people gathered closely together. As a verb, to crowd is to fill a space so that there is very little room left, or to push in too close.
From Old English *crūdan* “to press, push,” which led to the idea of people pressed together. The noun sense of a group of people developed later from the verb.
In crowds, people often behave differently than they would alone—your brain partly hands control to the group. That’s why crowds can feel exciting, scary, or strangely freeing, all at once.
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