groom
n. countablen. a man on his wedding day or just before it. You can also use this word for someone whose job is to take care of horses.
n. a man about to be married or newly married; also refers to a person employed to tend and stable horses.
The groom looks very happy in his wedding suit.
The groom waited nervously at the front of the church for the ceremony to begin.
While the bride spent the morning with her bridesmaids, the groom and his best man ensured that all the guests were seated according to the seating chart.
1604, short for bridegroom (“husband-to-be”), from Middle English brydgrome, alteration (with intrusive r) of earlier bridegome (“bridegroom”), from Old English brȳdguma (“bridegroom”), from brȳd (“bride”) + guma (“man, hero”). In Middle English, the second element was re-analyzed as or influenced by grom, grome (“attendant”). Guma derives from Proto-Germanic gumô (“man, person”), from Proto-Indo-European dʰǵʰm̥mō; it is cognate to Icelandic gumi (cf. Icelandic brúðgumi) and Norwegian gume and, ultimately, human.
From Middle English grom, grome (“man-child, boy, youth”), of uncertain origin. Apparently related to Middle Dutch grom (“boy”), Old Icelandic grómr, gromr (“man, manservant, boy”), Old French gromme (“manservant”), and also to Middle Dutch grom (“fish guts”), Middle Low German grôm (“fish guts”), from the same Proto-Germanic root. Possibly from Old English grōm, from Proto-West Germanic grōm (“swollen belly, stomach tumour, womb-child, fish roe, fish guts”), from Proto-Germanic *grōaną (“to grow”). Alternative etymology describes Middle English grom, grome as an alteration of gome (“man”) with an intrusive r (also found in bridegroom, hoarse, cartridge, etc.), with the Middle Dutch and Old Icelandic cognates following similar variation of their respective forms.
Often paired with 'bride' in a wedding context; in a stable context, it can also function as a verb meaning to clean an animal.