groom
pronunciation
How to pronounce groom in British English:
UK [gru:m]
How to pronounce groom in American English:
US [ɡrum, ɡrʊm]
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- Noun:
- a man participant in his own marriage ceremony
- someone employed in a stable to take care of the horses
- a man who has recently been married
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- Verb:
- prepare (someone) for a future role or function
- give a neat appearance to
- care for one's external appearance
Word Origin
- groom
- groom: [13] No one has ever been able satisfactorily to explain where the word groom came from. It suddenly appears in early Middle English, meaning ‘boy, male servant’ (the sense ‘one who takes care of horses’ is a 17th-century development), and none of the words with a superficial similarity to it, such as Old French grommet ‘servant’ and Old Norse grómr ‘man’, can be shown to be related. Bridegroom is a 14th-century alteration of Old English brydguma (the element guma ‘man’ is related to Latin homō ‘man’) under the influence of groom.
- groom (n.1)
- c. 1200 (late 12c. in surnames), grome "male child, boy;" c. 1300, "a youth, young man," also "male servant, attendant, minor officer in a royal or noble household ranking higher than a page; a knight's squire." Of unknown origin; no certain cognates in other Germanic languages. Perhaps from an unrecorded Old English *grom, *groma, which could be related to growan "to grow," and influenced by guma "man." Or perhaps from or influenced by Old French grommet "boy, young man in service, serving-man" (compare Middle English gromet "ship's boy," early 13c.). As the title of an officer of the English royal house from mid-15c. Specific meaning "male servant who attends to horses and stables" is from 1660s, from earlier combinations such as horse-groom, Groom of the Stables, etc.
- 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."
- groom (v.)
- "tend or care for; curry and feed," 1809, from groom (n.1) in its secondary sense of "male servant who attends to horses." Transferred sense of "to tidy (oneself) up" is from 1843; figurative sense of "to prepare a candidate" is from 1887, originally in U.S. politics. Related: Groomed; grooming.
Example
- 1. The groom 's family had other plans .
- 2. Here 's how oxford primatologist robin dunbar sees it : baboons groom each other to keep social ties strong .
- 3. The other reason for urgency is that the castros have failed to groom a successor .
- 4. As the european crisis unfolded , traders dumped their bonds like they were a reality show groom .
- 5. A still photograph taken from video shows a groom striking anne the elephant in a undated handout photograph received from animal defenders international in london on november 23 , 2012 .