 | This article relies largely or entirely on a
single source. (March 2024) |
A bridesman is a close male friend and/or relative of the bride, one who walks down the aisle in the bridal ceremony in the traditional place of a bridesmaid.
Charlotte Brontë made reference to bridesmen, seemingly in the modern sense, in the final chapter of her 1859 novel Shirley, which is set in Yorkshire in 1811–12: "Amongst the bridal train the most noticeable personages were the youthful bridesmen, Henry Sympson and Martin Yorke."
The term, however, has an ancient and obscure, possibly confabulated [1] origin. The term is first noted by the Encyclopaedia Judaica from the European Jewish Diaspora of the middle of the 13th century. In this context, a bridesman was not a friend of the bride but of the groom. He paid for and arranged the wedding from his own money and would be repaid someday by the groom. It was a position of the highest level of honor in male friendship. It was akin to the modern-day best man.
In Hungary, where the word for bridesman is " vőfély" or sometimes "vőfény" (depending on the region), the ancient tradition of the bridesman is still very popular. The vőfély is the "spokesman" of the bridegroom ("vő" means son-in-law).
References
- ^ "Literary usage of Bridemen". Lexus.us.
 | This society-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
 | This job-, occupation-, or vocation-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |