bridesmaid
(ˈbraɪdzmeɪd)
Also 6–9 bridemaid.
[The earlier form was bridemaid, as in brideman and the other compounds of bride- in sense of ‘bridal, wedding’; the 19th c. bridesmaid is due to the same perverted analysis, which has changed brideman into groomsman.]
A young unmarried woman performing various ceremonial duties at a wedding; in modern times the bridesmaids merely accompany or form the train of the bride.
(α) Form bridemaid.
| 1552 Huloet, Bryde mayde, pronuba. 1621 Quarles Argalus & P. (1678) 55 The Bride shall sit; Despair and Grief shall stand Like heartless Bride-maids upon either hand. 1747 Hervey Medit. & Contempl. (1818) 22 The bride⁓maids, girded with gladness, had prepared the marriage-bed; had decked it with the richest covers, and dressed it in pillows of down. 1798 Coleridge Anc. Mar. vii. xviii, But in the Garden bower the Bride And Bride-maids singing are. a 1847 Mrs. Sherwood Lady of Manor IV. xxiv. 147 Letitia, who had been my bridemaid. 1851 Hawthorne Twice-told T. (1883) 33 The widow between her fair young bridemaids. |
(β) bridesmaid. (At first colloq. or epistolary.)
| 1794 Ld. Auckland Corr. (1862) III. 256 It is proposed to one of your sisters to be bridesmaid at the royal marriage. 1836 Dickens Sk. Boz, Characters viii. 144 The bridesmaids could sit in the front parlour and receive the company. 1840 Ann. Reg. 24 The royal bridesmaids are each to have a brooch. 1884 Pall Mall G. 13 Feb. 8/2 The bridesmaids..wore dresses of cream soie épinglé and plush. |
Hence ˈbridemaidship, the position or office of a bridesmaid; ˈbridesmaiding vbl. n., acting as bridesmaid.
| 1858 Trollope Dr. Thorne iv, I won't be Augusta's bridesmaid; I'll bide my time for bridesmaiding. 1864 Chamb. Jrnl. 8 Oct. 642 It's your first experience of bridemaidship, and you look very nice. |