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.
双语例句
1. a toast to the bride and groom
向新娘新郎祝酒
来自《权威词典》
2. The bride and groom drink " cross - cupped wine " from one another's glasses.
新郎新娘喝交杯酒.
来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
3. The groom looks very smart.
新郎长得很帅.
来自《简明英汉词典》
4. His father was a groom.
他父亲曾是个马夫.
来自《简明英汉词典》
5. The head groom is responsible for seeing that Milton and his stablemates have safe journeys.
