paranymph

Paranymph, par′a-nimf, n. a friend of the bridegroom who escorted the bride on the way to her marriage: a bride's-man: one who countenances and supports another.

In the evening, the "fiancee" is conducted to her new home in a flowered chariot between her husband and the paranymph, escorted by torch-bearers and flute-girls.

And so, as with fire and thunder—“thunder of thought, and flames of fierce desire”—is this Marriage of Heaven and Hell at length happily consummated; the prophet, as a fervent paranymph, standing by to invoke upon the wedded pair his most unclerical benediction.

The function of the bridegroom’s friend, or paranymph, was to ask the hand of the bride for the bridegroom, and to arrange the marriage.

These crowds you complain of are evidence that I have not discharged the function of paranymph in vain.