Bridal

How to spell bridal

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bridal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bridal mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to a bride or to a wedding.

Bridal in a sentence

• She chose an ivory bridal gown for the ceremony.

• The boutique specialises in bridal wear and matching veils.

Where does bridal come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Bridal is one of those words whose spelling hides a small surprise: it began not as an adjective but as a compound noun. In Old English it was brydealu, literally 'bride-ale', the name for the wedding feast where ale was served to celebrate the marriage. The first part comes from bryd, meaning 'bride', and the second from ealu, the word for 'ale'. Over the centuries the final part was worn down and people came to hear it as the ordinary adjective ending -al, so brydealu drifted into 'bridal' and shifted from naming the feast to describing anything connected with a wedding. This accidental ending is exactly why bridal looks like an adjective even though its history has nothing to do with the Latin -al suffix, and it is the reason bridal and the unrelated bridle (the horse's headgear) ended up sounding identical yet meaning entirely different things.

How the word is built

• brid- (from bryd: bride)
• -al (here from ealu: ale/feast, later reinterpreted as the adjective suffix -al)