BRIDE (a

See also:

• COMMON

common

See also:

• TEUTONIC
• TEUTONIC (GERMANIC) LANGUAGES

Teutonic word, e.g..Goth. bruths, O. Eng. bryd, O. H. Ger. prs2t, Mod. Ger. Bract, Dut. bruid, possibly derived from the

See also:

• ROOT (late O.E. rot, adopted from Scand., cf. Norw. and Swed. rot, Dan. rod; the true O.E. word was wyrt, plant, represented in Ger. Wurz or Wurzel; the ultimate root is the same in both words, and is seen in Lat. radix)
• ROOT, ELIHU (1845– )

root bru-,

See also:

• COOK
• COOK, ALBERT STANBURROUGH (1853– )
• COOK, EDWARD DUTTON (1829–1883)
• COOK, ELIZA (1818–1889)
• COOK, JAMES (1728-1779)
• COOK, THOMAS (1808-1892)

cook, brew; from the med. latinized

See also:

• FORM (Lat. forma)

form bruta, in the sense of daughter-in-

See also:

• LAW
• LAW (0. Eng. lagu, M. Eng. lawe; from an old Teutonic root lag, " lie," what lies fixed or evenly; cf. Lat. lex, Fr. loi)
• LAW, JOHN (1671—1729)
• LAW, WILLIAM (1686-1761)

law, is derived the Fr. bru)  , the term used of a woman on her wedding-day, and applicable during the first year of wifehood . It appears in combination with many words, some of them obsolete . Thus " bridegroom " is the newly married man, and " bride-bell," " bride-banquet " are old equivalents of wedding-bells, wedding-breakfast . " Bridal " (from Bride-ale), originally the wedding-feast itself, has grown into a general descriptive adjective, e.g. the bridal party, the bridal ceremony . The bride-cake had its origin in the Roman confarreatio, a form of marriage, the essential features of which were the eating by the couple of a cake made of salt, water and flour, and the holding by the bride of three wheat-ears, symbolical of plenty . Under Tiberius the cake-eating fell into disuse, but the wheat ears survived . In the middle ages they were either worn or carried by the bride . Eventually it became the custom for the young girls to assemble outside the church porch and throw grains of wheat over the bride, and afterwards a scramble for the grains took place . In time the wheat-grains came to be cooked into thin dry biscuits, which were broken over the bride's head, as is the custom in Scotland to-day, an oatmeal cake being used . In Elizabeth's reign these biscuits began to take the form of small rectangular cakes made of eggs, milk, sugar, currants and spices . Every wedding guest had one at least, and the whole collection were thrown at the bride the instant she crossed the threshold . Those which lighted on her head or shoulders were most prized by the scramblers .

At last these cakes became amalgamated into a large one which took on its full glories of

almond paste and ornaments during Charles II.'s time . But even to-day in rural parishes, e.g. north Notts, wheat is thrown over the bridal couple with the cry " Bread for life and pudding for ever," expressive of a wish that the newly wed may be always affluent . The throwing of rice, a very ancientcustom but one later than the wheat, is symbolical of the wish that the bridal may be fruitful . The bride-cup was the bowl or loving-cup in which the bridegroom pledged the bride, and she him . The custom of breaking this wine-cup, after the bridal couple had drained its contents, is common to both the Jews and the members of the Greek Church . The former dash it against the wall or on the ground, the latter tread it under foot . The phrase " bride-cup " was also sometimes used of the bowl of spiced wine prepared at night for the bridal couple . Bride-favours, anciently called bride-lace, were at first pieces of gold, silk or other lace, used to bind up the sprigs of rosemary formerly worn at weddings . These took later the form of bunches of ribbons, which were at last metamorphosed into rosettes . Bridegroom-men and bridesmaids had formerly important duties . The men were called bride-knights, and represented a survival of the primitive days of marriage by capture, when a man called his friends in to assist to " lift " the bride . Brides-maids were usual in Saxon England .

The

senior of them had personally to attend the bride for some days before the wedding . The making of the bridal wreath, the decoration of the tables for the wedding feast, the dressing of the bride, were among her special tasks . In the same way the senior groomsman (the best man) was the personal attendant of the husband . The bride-wain, the wagon in which the bride was driven to her new home, gave its name to the weddings of any poor deserving couple, who drove a " wain " round the village, collecting small sums of money or articles of furniture towards their housekeeping . These were called bidding-weddings, or bid-ales, which were in the nature of " benefit feasts . So general is still the custom of " bidding-weddings " in Wales, that printers usually keep the form of invitation in type . Sometimes as many as six hundred couples will walk in the bridal procession . The bride's wreath is a Christian substitute for the gilt coronet all Jewish brides wore . The crowning of the bride is still observed by the Russians, and the Calvinists of Holland and Switzerland . The wearing of orange blossoms is said to have started with the Saracens, who regarded them as emblems of fecundity . It was introduced into Europe by the Crusaders . The bride's veil is the modern form of the flammeum or large yellow veil which completely enveloped the Greek and Roman brides during the ceremony .

Such a coverint is still in use among the Jews and the Persians . See

Brand, Antiquities of Great Britain (Hazlitt's ed., 1905) ; Rev J . Edward Vaux, Church Folklore (1894) .