Unusual Wedding Words for Your Next Celebration
From ancient marriage customs to long-forgotten bridal traditions, the English language is full of unusual wedding-related words. Whether you’re planning a ceremony, attending one, or just love learning quirky terms, this list proves that romance has always inspired some fascinating vocabulary.
Epithalamion
If witnessing a heartfelt exchange of wedding vows moves you to song, take note: the resulting ditty might be referred to as an epithalamion, defined as “a song or poem in honor of a bride and bridegroom.” It is very close in meaning to the word prothalamion, a song or poem written to celebrate a marriage. Both words are built on the Greek word for “bedroom” or “bridal chamber,” thalamus. The difference lies in their prefixes: epi- means “upon,” and pro- means “before.”
Paranymph
Wedding terminology is peppered with words that have been historically bound to gender, such as bride and groom. But one lesser-known wedding word with unisex applicability is paranymph, meaning “a groomsman or a bridesmaid.” It translates literally from the Greek paránymphos as “the person beside the bride.” The oldest sense of the word nymph referred to a class of lesser deities of mythology, though by the late 1500s, the term could refer, less supernaturally, to a maiden.
Agamy
If you’re one of the many folks flying solo this wedding season, or if you go out of your way not to catch the bouquet at the reception, you might want to have this word in your back pocket: agamy is the state or quality of being unmarried. This word can also refer to an aversion to the institution of marriage, even though its prefix <i>a-</i> simply means “not” or “without.” The combining form -gamy means “marriage” or “union,” as in monogamy or polygamy.
Affiance
Themes of trust and truthfulness are woven into many of the words we use to talk about marriage. Affiance means “to pledge by promise of marriage.” It shares a root with fiancé in the Latin fidere, meaning “to trust.” Similarly, the word betroth, which means “to arrange for the marriage of” comes from the Old English word for “truth.”
Foy
To walk down the aisle is to embark on a lifelong journey, which is perhaps why the Scottish dialectal term foy, which broadly means “a farewell gift, feast, or drink,” is sometimes used in Scotland to refer to what people in the U.S. might call a bachelorette party: a party given in honor of a woman on the eve of her marriage. Etymologists link it to the French term voie, meaning “way” or ” journey.”
Trousseau
A trousseau is a collection of clothing or household linen for a bride. Historically, it has been used to refer to the linens and other accoutrements that a bride gathers to furnish the house she will share with her husband. But nowadays, it’s often used to refer to the robes and lingerie that a bride wears on her wedding night. It can be traced to the Middle French term troussel, meaning “parcel, bundle.”
Deuterogamy
For many, wedding vows are a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, but for some, the second time down the aisle is the charm. Deuterogamy is a second marriage after the death or divorce of the first husband or wife. Another word for this is digamy (not to be confused with bigamy, the act of marrying while one has another spouse). The first element in deuterogamy, deutero-, means “second,” giving us words such as deuteragonist, which refers to the actor next in importance to the protagonist.
