bridesmaid

Etymology

It is formed from English bride + maid, first as bridemaid.^[2][3][4] The later form, with the genitive -s, is an alteration of it;^[3][5][6] Etymonline calls the -s- unetymological.^[2] Bride is from Old English brȳd,^[2] and maid is a shortening of maiden.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A woman or girl who attends the bride at a wedding: 1552, as bridemaid, in Huloet's Abcedarium Anglico Latinum.^[3][7] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates its first sense to 1707.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The spelling with -s- appeared by 1794, at first in informal writing and letters,^[2][8] and was the usual form by the end of the 19th century.^[2] The proverb always a bridesmaid, never a bride and its variants were said from 1858 of a woman unlikely to marry,^[3] and figuratively from 1930 of someone always left in second place.^[3] According to the Phrase Finder, the saying was popularized by a music-hall song of 1917 and by a Listerine advertisement of 1924.^[9] From 1950 bridesmaid alone has meant a person or thing in a secondary position, one who finishes just behind the winner.^[3][5] Related terms are brideman, a bridegroom, from the 1610s, and bridesman, a male attendant of the bridegroom, from 1808.^[2]

Timeline

• 1552 – bridemaid, an attendant of the bride at a wedding.^[3]
• 1794 – the form bridesmaid.^[2][8]
• 1858 – the proverb always a bridesmaid, never a bride, of a woman.^[3]
• 1930 – the proverb used figuratively, of someone always in second place.^[3]
• 1950 – a person or thing in a secondary position; a runner-up.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A woman or girl, often one of several, who attends the bride at a wedding: Her two sisters were her bridesmaids.^[5][6][3]
2. A person or team that finishes just behind the winner; someone left in a secondary position: After three lost finals, the club was tired of being the bridesmaid.^[5][3]

Related words

• bride
• maid
• maiden
• bridegroom

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Martin, Gary, The Phrase Finder: Meaning and Origin of Phrases, Sayings, Clichés and Quotes, https://www.phrases.org.uk