The 'Best Man'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 42, 20 October 1904, Page 29

The 'Best Man'

It) may be a surprise to some people to know that Ino phrase ' best man ' — the bridegroom's nearest attendant — is of Scottish origin (say. the Lot d n ' Globe'). IHi the North, also, tine piincipal bridesmia.'d used to be called the ' best maid.' Neither expression has much to recommend it. It is a great pity, indeed, that ' best man,' an inelegant* and in itself meaningless phrase, should have so completely ousted from our common everyday speech the good old English name of ' bndeman ' or ' bridesman.' Another old name is ' groomsman,' and in days gone by the bridegroom was attended, not by one friend, but by several, who were In own as the bn<lemeri or groom s<men. The term ' best man ' came into use, presumably, to indicate the one of tliese who took the lead in performing tlheir various 1 duties, awrt was m closest attendance on the bridegroim. The forerunner of the biideman was the brideleader, whose duty it was to brim; the bride to the bridegroom. In most co\utttries "where the real or pretended capture of the bride was an essential part of the ceremony, and wherever traces of the very ancient custom of bride capture existed, the friend or friends of the bridegroom ha.d the impoTtant office of capturing the laxly and bringing her to liar lord. In one of Dryden's plays there is the line : ' Betwixt hex guards 1 she seemed by brLdemen led,' arid Brand tells vs 1 that at many old English weddings the bridegroom was led to the church between two maids, anjrt the bride by .twovo'mg men, holding her by the arras as if unwilling* This was evidently a survival of the idea Cf capture.;' I*1 '*