Wiktionary

besom

English

edit

Etymology

edit

From Middle English besme, beseme, from Old English besma, besema (“besom, broom, rod”), from Proto-West Germanic *besmō (“broom”).

 
A traditional besom.

Pronunciation

edit

Noun

edit

besom (plural besoms)

  1. A broom made from a bundle of twigs tied onto a shaft.
    • 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 56:
      As a kid I went to the Russian Bath with my own father. … Down in the cellar men moaned on the steam-softened planks while they were massaged abrasively with oak-leaf besoms lathered in pickle buckets.
  2. (Scotland, Northern England, derogatory) A troublesome woman.
    • 1903, Samuel Rutherford Crockett, The Dark O' the Moon: A Novel, page 130:
      "Eh, but she was a besom, if a' tales be true !"
    • 1917, A.S. Neill., A Dominie Dismissed, page 10:
      Janet's eyes began to look dim, and I had to frown at her very hard; then I had to turn my frown on Jean ... and Janet, the besom, took advantage of my divided attention.
    • 1963, Margaret McLean MacPherson, The Shinty Boys, page 187:
      Uncle Angus went on about the behavior of the car. "She's a besom, a proper besom, her and her gears. She'll be the death of me yet one of these days."
    • 2013, Nora Kay, Best Friends:
      "She's a besom but no' bad at times, like now," Agnes said as she bit into a dough-ring.
  3. Any cleansing or purifying agent.
    • 1851, “A Few Words about War and the Peace Congress.”, in Littell’s Living Age, volume 28, page 364:
      "The march of an army through a conquered country supposing it to be a highly civilized one, is a besom of destruction, whose havoc, moral and material, it would take at least a century to recover."

Derived terms

edit

Translations

edit

See also

edit

Verb

edit

besom (third-person singular simple present besoms, present participle besoming, simple past and past participle besomed)

  1. (archaic, poetic) To sweep.
    • 1954, Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood […] ‎[1], New York: New Directions, page 13:
      Now, in her iceberg-white, holily laundered crinoline nightgown, under virtuous polar sheets, in her spruced and scoured dust-defying bedroom in trig and trim Bay View, a house for paying guests at the top of the town, Mrs Ogmore-Prichard widow, twice, of Mr Ogmore, linolium, retired, and Mr Prichard, failed bookmaker, who maddened by besoming, swabbing and scrubbing, the voice of the vacuum-cleaner and the fume of polish, ironically swallowed disinfectant...

Anagrams

edit

Middle English

edit

Noun

edit

besom

  1. (Late Middle English) Alternative form of besme

Serbo-Croatian

edit

Noun

edit

besom (Cyrillic spelling бесом)

  1. instrumental singular of bes

Noun

edit

besom (Cyrillic spelling бесом)

  1. instrumental singular of besa

Yola

edit

Etymology

edit

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

edit
  This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!

Adjective

edit

besom

  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
    • 1927, “ZONG OF TWI MAARKEET MOANS”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 129, line 5:
      Thick besom fighed a spagh wi kick an a blaake […]
      The stupid kid figged the spoke, with a kick and a bleat […]

References

edit
  • Kathleen A. Browne (1927) The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Sixth Series, Vol.17 No.2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, page 129
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=besom&oldid=83123532"