Dictionary

bridesman en · NOUN

Etymology

From bride + -s- + man, by alteration of earlier brideman; compare bridesmaid.

Meanings

1. A male friend or companion of the bridegroom, having various ceremonial duties at a wedding.
   • It was customary, in those days, for the bride's-man and maiden, and a few select friends, to visit the newly married couple after they had retired to rest […]. 1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, Oxford, published 2010, page 7:
   • According to him, on the following Thursday, the bridesmen, numbering “six, eight, even ten or more,” rode on horseback with four wagons to get the bride. 2005, Susan Karant-Nunn, The Reformation of Ritual, page 26:
2. A male bridesmaid; a man who attends a bride during her wedding ceremony, as part of the wedding party.
   • She might be renting a tux, however, as she is willing to have a bridesman. 2008 June 26, Katie Zezima, “Bride-to-Be Takes a Chance on eBay for a Bidding Bridesmaid”, in New York Times:

Forms

Coordinates

bridesmaid

Translations (5)

de Brautführer (male bridesmaid) · fi sulhaspoika (male friend or companion of the bridegroom) · fi sulhaspoika (male bridesmaid) · ru поджени́шник (male friend or companion of the bridegroom) · de Brautführer (male friend or companion of the bridegroom)