Squish
A platonic crush: wanting to be close to someone, without romance.
A squish is a platonic crush. It has the intensity of one, the preoccupation, the wanting to be near someone and be liked by them, without any romantic or sexual component.
The word comes from aromantic communities, coined alongside crush to name something that had no word and was therefore constantly mistaken for one. Anyone can have squishes; aro people simply needed the term first.
The related word for the queerplatonic equivalent is zucchini, used for a queerplatonic partner. It began as a joke about the absence of vocabulary and stuck, which tells you something about how short the available list was.
A squish is not a crush someone is denying
The default reading is that any intense feeling toward a person is romantic underneath, and that the word is a way of avoiding saying so.
People with squishes are usually clear about the difference, and often quite specific: they want time and closeness, and the romantic component is simply absent.
Saying it well
Say this
- I have a squish on them.
- A platonic crush, basically.
- It is a squish, not a crush.
- Squish, and I would like to be their friend quite badly.
Not this
- So you fancy them
- That is just a crush you are denying
- Friends do not feel like that
- Everyone knows what that means
Questions people actually ask
What is a squish?
A platonic crush: wanting closeness with someone with the intensity of a crush but no romantic or sexual element.
Can anyone have a squish?
Yes. The word came from aromantic communities because they needed it first, but the experience is not exclusive.
What is a zucchini?
Slang for a queerplatonic partner, coined in the same communities and for the same reason.