Groomsmen

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Men who accompany and assist the groom during a wedding ceremony
2. Male participants who stand with the groom and help with wedding duties
3. Guests chosen by the groom to support him and participate in the marriage event

Etymology: "Groomsmen" is the plural of "groomsman," and the word is simply a compound of two older English words: "groom" and "man." The "-s-" that appears in the middle is a linking element that joins the two parts together, a common pattern in English compounds of this kind. The "man" half is the older and more stable of the two. It descends from Old English "mann," which meant a human being in general, not specifically an adult male, a sense it kept for centuries before narrowing to its modern meaning. The "groom" half has a more tangled past. Its ancestry runs through Middle English and Old English, and it originally referred to a boy or young male servant before coming to mean a man at his wedding. Put together, the compound pictured a man attending the groom in the way a servant or young attendant once would, and that sense of personal service still runs through the word's modern use.

Synonyms: best men, ushers, attendants, supporters, friends