Other forms: brides
A bride is the woman getting married on her wedding day. The bride and groom, a beautiful bride, the bride's family.
White as the colour for a bride is a Victorian fashion set by Queen Victoria in 1840 and not an ancient tradition. The bride's family paying is a custom in decline. Bridal comes from bride plus ale — a bride-ale was the wedding feast — which is why the adjective looks like a possessive but is not. Note bridesmaid, bridegroom; and that groom in bridegroom once meant a man.
1nounbrideThe woman getting married on her wedding day.
“The bride looked beautiful in her long white dress.”
bride is a person marrying.
Old English bryd is Germanic. Bridal comes from bryd-ealu, the bride-ale or wedding feast, which is why it is not simply bride plus -al.
Proto-Germanic
*brūdiz — bride
Proto-West Germanic
*brūdi
Old English
brȳd — bride
Middle English
bride
English, today
bride
From Middle English bride, from Old English brȳd (“bride”), from Proto-West Germanic brūdi, from Proto-Germanic brūdiz (“bride”). 2 Cognate with yol breede (“bride”), stq Bräid (“bride”), gsw Bruut (“bride”), gmw-cfr Brock, Brutt, Bruut (“bride”), Dutch bruid (“bride”), German and lb Braut (“bride”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish brud (“bride”), Faroese and Icelandic brúður (“bride”), Norwegian Nynorsk brud, brur (“bride”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌿𐌸𐍃 (“bride”), French bru (“daughter-in-law”), fur brût (“daughter-in-law”) (from Old High German brut (“bride”)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA