Word of the Day: May 20, 2009 - wedding

wedding (wed-ing) - noun

A wedding is "the act or ceremony of marrying; marriage; nuptials."

First used in the written form around the year 900. A wedding is etymologically a ceremony at which people promise to marry each other. The word's source, from the verb wed, goes back to prehistoric Germanic wathjojan (the source of the German wetten, meaning "wager").  This in turn was derived from the noun wathjam, meaning "pledge," which also produced the English words engage, wage, and wager.

The Old English word weddung, meaning "state of being wed," with wed meaning "ceremony of marriage," was recorded around 1300.  The usual Old English word for the ceremony was bridelope, meaning "bridal run," in reference to conducting the bride to her new home.

Wedding cake was first recorded in 1648.

Comments

[Dita]

Love your picture for this one! ::winks to Jinx::

[Ashlea]

I love the cake!!!!