▪ I. bridegroom
(ˈbraɪdgruːm)
Forms: α. 1 br{yacu}dguma, 2–3 brid-, brudgume, 3 bridgom(e, 3–4 bridegome, 4 brydgome, (Kentish) bredgome; β. 6 brydegrome, 6–7 bridegrome, -groome, bridgroome, 6– bridegroom.
[α. OE. br{yacu}dguma, f. br{yacu}d, bride + guma ‘man’ (poetic):—*OTeut. gumon-, cognate with L. homin-. The compound was Common Teut.: cf. OS. brûdigomo (MDu. brûdegome, Du. bruidegom), OHG. brûtigomo (MHG. briutegome, Ger. bräutigam), ON. brûðgumi (Sw. brudgumme, Da. brudgom):—OTeut. *br{uacu}đigumon-; not preserved in Gothic, which has brûþfaþs = ‘bride's lord’. β. After gome became obs. in ME., the place of bridegome was taken in 16th c. by bridegrome, f. grome, groom ‘lad’.
During the 14th c. the only known examples of bridegome are northern or Kentish: no instances at all are known in the 15th c., and in the Promptorium and Catholicon, bryde is of both sexes: see bride1 2. The 16th c. brydegrome was thus perh. really the ‘bride-lad’, i.e. the lad who was a ‘bride’: cf. bride-couple, and the original senses of bride-man, bride-woman. Was it a new independent formation only accidentally resembling brydegome, or had the latter survived in some dialect, whence it was drawn forth in the 16th c. in a mistaken form?]
1. A man about to be married, or very recently married.
(α) Form brydegome.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. John iii. 28 Se ðe bryde hæfð, se is brydguma [Lindisf. se ðe hæfes ða bryd brydguma is]. c 1200 Ormin 10393 To beon bridgume nemmnedd. c 1230 Hali Meid. 9 Gentille wimmen..þat nabbeð hwerwið buggen ham brudgume. a 1300 Cursor M. 13424 Þan left þe bridgom his bride. a 1300 E.E. Psalter xviii. [xix.] 6 Als bride-gome of his boure comand. 1340 Ayenb. 233 Þe wyse maydines..yeden in mid þe bredgome to þe bredale. |
(β) Form bridegroom.
| 1526 Tindale John iii. 29 He that hath the bryde is the brydegrome. But the frende of the brydegrome, which, etc. [Wyclif He that hath a wif is the housbonde, but the frende of the spouse, etc.]. 1535 Coverdale 2 Esdr. xvi. 34 The daughters shal mourne, hauinge no brydegromes. 1580 Baret Alv. B 1241 A Bridegroome, sponsus. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iii. i. 153 And is the Bride and Bridegroom coming home? 1791 Burns Lament J. Earl Glencairn x, The bridegroom may forget the bride Was made his wedded wife yestreen. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 71 He..dresses himself as a bridegroom and marries his master's daughter. |
b. fig. Said of Christ in his relation to the Church, or as heavenly spouse of a nun.
| a 1225 St. Marher. 19 Bring me to þi brihte bur, brudgume of wunne. 1842 Tennyson St. Agnes' Eve 31 For me the Heavenly Bridegroom waits. |
2. comb. or attrib.
| 1647 Cowley Mistr., Gazers iv, On the earth with Bridegroom-Heat, He [the sun] does still new Flowers beget. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. II. 396 The bridegroom-doge, who in his stately Bucentaur floats on the bosom of his Thetis. |
▪ II. ˈbridegroom, v. rare.
[f. prec. n.]
trans. To act as bridegroom to, to wed.
| 1868 A. Menken Infelicia 3 A Midnight swooped down to bridegroom the Day. |