groom
/ɡɹum/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.63 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A person who looks after horses.
noun
One of several officers of the English royal household, chiefly in the lord chamberlain's department.
verb
To attend to one's appearance and clothing.
Example Sentences
- "Toward the end of the war, Benoit was sent off on his own with forged papers; he wound up working as a horse groom at a chalet in the Loire valley. Mandelbrot describes this harrowing youth with great sangfroid."
- "the groom of the chamber; the groom of the stole"
- "The needy groom, that never finger'd groat, Would make a miracle of thus much coin …"
- "Going into the hall he saw a handsome groom, in a braided livery and a bear fur cape, holding a white fur cloak."
- "Give the mare a quick groom before you take her out."
- "2010 (April 20) "The Collection" s1e6 of TV series Justified The wife didn't care about riding, but Owen did. Well, he cared about me. I went from doing everything — grooming, feeding, looking out — to being handed the reins of the most magnificent creatures ready to ride."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɡɹum/
- British English: /ɡɹuːm/