“向内爆裂，突然崩溃”，1829年，模仿explosion，采用了in- (2) “进入，在，上，之上”（来自PIE根*en “在”）的同化形式。
And to show how entire the neglect and confusion have been, they speak in the same breath of all these explosions, and of the explosion of a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, the result of which, instead of being a gas or an enlargement of bulk, a positive quantity, is a negative one. It is a vacuum, in a popular sense, because the produce is water. The result is an implosion (to coin a word), not an explosion .... ["Gas-light," Westminster Review, October 1829]
为了展示忽视和混乱是多么彻底，他们在同一语境中提到所有这些爆炸，以及氢气和氧气混合物的爆炸，结果却不是气体或体积的增加，而是一个负的量。这在通俗意义上是一个真空，因为产物是水。结果是一个内爆（造个词），而不是爆炸……【《煤气灯》，《西敏寺评论》，1829年10月】
早期使用常常指深海压力的影响，或在语音学中。比喻意义到1960年出现。
