bride | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

25 entries found.

"woman newly married or about to be," Old English bryd "bride, betrothed or newly married woman," from Proto-Germanic *bruthiz "woman being married" (source also of Old Frisian breid, Dutch bruid, Old High German brut, German Braut "bride"), a word of uncertain origin.

Gothic cognate bruþs, however, meant "daughter-in-law," and the form of the word borrowed from Old High German into Medieval Latin (bruta) and Old French (bruy) had only this sense. In ancient Indo-European custom, the married woman went to live with her husband's family, so the only "newly wed female" in such a household would have been the daughter-in-law. On the same notion, some trace the word itself to the PIE verbal root *bhreu-, which forms words for cooking and brewing, as this likely was the daughter-in-law's job. An Old Frisian word for "bride" was fletieve, literally "house-gift."

bridesmaid (n.)

"young girl or unmarried woman who attends on a bride at her wedding," 1550s, bridemaid, from bride + maid. The -s- is unetymological but began to appear by 1794 and the form with it predominated by the end of the 19c. Brideman is attested from 1610s as "bridegroom;" bridesman is from 1808 as "male attendant on a bridegroom at his wedding."

burd (n.)

poetic word for "woman, lady" in old ballads; later "young lady, maiden;" c. 1200, perhaps from Old English byrde "wealthy, well-born, of good birth" (compare Old English gebyrd "birth, descent, race; offspring; nature; fate;" see birth (n.)) Or a metathesis of bryd "bride" (see bride). The masculine equivalent was berne.

bridal (adj.)

"belonging to a bride or a wedding," c. 1200, transferred use of noun bridal "wedding feast," Old English brydealo "marriage feast," from bryd ealu, literally "bride ale" (see bride + ale); the second element later was confused with suffix -al (1), especially after c. 1600. Compare scot-ale under scot (n.) and Middle English scythe-ale (mid-13c.) "drinking celebration for mowers, as compensation for a particular job." Bridal-suite is by 1857.

bridegroom (n.)

"man newly married or about to be," Old English brydguma "suitor," from bryd "bride" (see bride) + guma "man," from Proto-Germanic *gumon- (source also of Old Norse gumi, Old High German gomo), literally "earthling, earthly being," as opposed to the gods, from suffixed form of PIE root *dhghem- "earth." Ending altered 16c. by folk etymology after groom (n.) "groom, boy, lad" (q.v.).

A common Germanic compound (compare Old Saxon brudigumo, Old Norse bruðgumi, Old High German brutigomo, German Bräutigam), except in Gothic, which used bruþsfaþs, literally "bride's lord."

bird (n.2)

"maiden, young girl; woman of noble birth, damsel, lady, lady in waiting," also "the Virgin Mary," c. 1200, perhaps a variant of birth (n.) "birth, lineage," confused with burd and bride (q.q.v.), but felt by later writers as a figurative use of bird (n.1), which originally meant "young bird" and sometimes in Middle English was extended to the young of other animals and humans. In later Middle English bird (n.2) largely was confined to alliterative poetry and to alliterative phrases. Modern slang meaning "young woman" is from 1915, and probably arose independently of the older word (compare slang use of chick).

groom (n.2)

"husband-to-be at a wedding; newly married man," c. 1600 (usually as a correlative of bride), short for bridegroom (q.v.), in which the second element is Old English guma "man."

debridement (n.)

"removal of damaged tissue from a wound," 1839, from French débridement, literally "an unbridling," from débrider "to unbridle," from dé- (see de-) + bride "bridle," from a Germanic source akin to Middle High German bridel (see bridle (n.)). Related: debride, debriding.

nymph (n.)

late 14c., nimphe, "one of a class of semi-divine female beings in classical mythology," imagined as beautiful maidens, eternally young, from Old French nimphe (13c.) and directly from Latin nympha "nymph, demi-goddess; bride, mistress, young woman," from Greek nymphē "bride, young wife," later "beautiful young woman," then "semi-divine being in the form of a beautiful maiden;" usually said to be related to Latin nubere "to marry, wed" (see nuptial), but Beekes suggests a Pre-Greek origin.

Sub-groups include dryads, hamadryads, naiads, nereids, and oreads. The sense in English of "young and attractive woman" is attested from 1580s. Meaning "insect stage between larva and adult" is recorded from 1570s. Related: Nymphal; nymphean.

wedding (n.)

Old English weddung "state of being wed; pledge, betrothal; action of marrying," verbal noun from wed (v.). Meaning "nuptials, ceremony of marriage" is recorded from early 13c.; the usual Old English word for the ceremony was bridelope, literally "bridal run," in reference to conducting the bride to her new home. Wedding ring is from late 14c.; wedding cake is recorded from 1640s, as a style of architecture from 1879. Wedding dress is attested from 1779; wedding reception from 1856.

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