Old English brom, popular name for several types of shrubs common throughout Europe (used medicinally and for fuel) and characterized by long, slender branches and many yellow flowers, from Proto-Germanic *bræmaz "thorny bush" (source also of Dutch braam, German Brombeere "blackberry"), from PIE *bh(e)rem- "to project; a point."
As "twigs of broom tied together to a handle to make a tool for sweeping," mid-14c. Traditionally, both the flowers and sweeping with broom twigs were considered unlucky in May (Suffolk, Sussex, Wiltshire, etc.).
also broom-stick, "stick or handle of a broom," 1680s, from broom (n.) + stick (n.). Earlier was broom-staff (1610s). Broom-handle is from 1817. The witch's flying broomstick originally was one among many such objects (pitchfork, trough, bowl), but the broomstick became fixed as the popular tool of supernatural flight via engravings from a famous Lancashire witch trial of 1612. Broomstick marriage, in reference to an informal wedding ceremony in which the parties jump over a broomstick, is attested from 1774.
house or family which reigned in England from 1154 to 1485, the name apparently is literally "broom-plant" (French plante genêt), from Latin genista "broom plant."
"broom-shaped," by 1891, from Latin scopa "broom" (see scopa) + -arious. Late Latin scoparius was "a sweeper." An older English word in the same sense was scopiform (1794).
Middle English besme, from Old English besma "bundle of twigs" (used as a broom or a flail), from West Germanic *besman- (source also of Old Frisian besma "rod, birch," Old Saxon besmo, Old High German besmo "broom, besom," German Besen, Dutch bezem), which is of unknown origin, possibly from a non-IE substrate language.
shoe with soles of hemp-rope (originally worn in the Pyrenees), 1892, from French espadrille (17c.), from Provençal espardillo, from Latin spartum "Spanish broom, Spanish grass," a plant of Iberia and North Africa that produced a fiber used to make mats, nets, ropes, etc., from Greek sparton "rope made of spartos" ("Spanish broom"), from PIE *spr-to-, from root *sper- (2) "to turn, twist" (see Sparta). For initial e- see e-.
"low-ranking domestic servant who performs menial kitchen tasks," late 15c., sculioun, scwlioun, perhaps, with substitution of suffix, from Anglo-French sculier, a variant of Old French escuelier, from escouve "broom, twig," from Latin scopa (plural scopæ) "broom," related to scapus "shaft, stem" (see scape (n.2)). Or it might be an alteration of Old French souillon "scullion" (but this is not attested before 16c.), by influence of scullery. "The word is now generally associated in thought with scullery, which is, however, of different origin" [Century Dictionary].
"of or pertaining to a wife," 1778, from Latin uxoris (see uxorious) + -al (1). Sometimes is used in the sense of uxorius.
We still say that a husband hangs out the broom when his wife goes from home for a short time; and on such occasions a broom besom has been exhibited as a signal that the house was freed from uxorial restraint, and where the master might be considered as a temporary bachelor. [Samuel Johnson and George Steevens, notes to "The Tempest," 1778]
tuft of hairs on a bee's leg, 1802, from Latin scopae (plural) "twigs, shoots; a broom, brush," which is related to scapus "shaft," which perhaps is cognate with Greek skapos "staff," skēptron "staff, scepter" (see scepter).
