Groom (profession)

A groom or stable boy is a person who is responsible for some or all aspects of the management of horses and/or the care of the stables themselves. The term most often refers to a person who is the employee of a stable owner, but even an owner of a horse may perform the duties of a groom, particularly if the owner only possesses a few horses.

Word history

The word appeared in English as grome c.1225, meaning "boy child, boy, youth" but nobody knows whence.

It has no known cognates in other Germanic languages (e.g. Dutch and German use compound terms, such as Stal(l)knecht 'stable servant', or equivalents of synonyms mentioned below). Perhaps it stems from an Old English root groma, related to growan "grow" or from Old French grommet "servant" (compare Medieval English gromet for "ship's boy", recorded since 1229).

The word was originally rather grander in status, as in bridegroom and the socially elevated offices in the English Royal Household of:

Horse

The horse (Equus ferus caballus) is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. It is an odd-toed ungulate mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, Hyracotherium, into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began to domesticate horses around 4000 BC, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC. Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, as this term is used to describe horses that have never been domesticated, such as the endangered Przewalski's horse, a separate subspecies, and the only remaining true wild horse. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior.

Horses' anatomy enables them to make use of speed to escape predators and they have a well-developed sense of balance and a strong fight-or-flight response. Related to this need to flee from predators in the wild is an unusual trait: horses are able to sleep both standing up and lying down. Female horses, called mares, carry their young for approximately 11 months, and a young horse, called a foal, can stand and run shortly following birth. Most domesticated horses begin training under saddle or in harness between the ages of two and four. They reach full adult development by age five, and have an average lifespan of between 25 and 30 years.

Horse (disambiguation)

A horse is a hoofed mammal of the species Equus ferus caballus.

Horse or Horses may also refer to:

Animals

Arts and entertainment

Horse (1941 film)

Uma (馬, also known as Horse) is a 1941 black-and-white Japanese film directed by Kajiro Yamamoto and starring Hideko Takamine, whom Yamamoto had directed in his film Composition Class (Tsuzurikata Kyōshitsu) three years before. Uma was actually completed by assistant director Akira Kurosawa. It follows the story of Ine Onoda, the eldest daughter of a poor family of farmers, who raises a colt from birth and comes to love the horse dearly. When the horse is grown, the government orders it auctioned and sold to the army. Ine struggles to prevent the sale.

Overview

The film is a tale about a young girl and the colt she raises from its birth. But it is also about the struggle of farmers existing on the edge of poverty. Akira Kurosawa is credited as the film's production coordinator, which is equivalent to first assistant director. But Kurosawa's signature is all over this work and is the last film he was to work on as an assistant before starting his own directing career. The film took three years to plan and a year to film. Kajiro Yamamoto had to commute to the far mountainous location but had to turn his attention to his money making comedies in Tokyo and so he left production in the hands of his assistant, Kurosawa.

Groom (surname)

Groom is a family name of English origin. Its English usage comes from the trade or profession, a person responsible for the feeding and care of horses, not to be confused with the much more socially distinguished roles in the English Royal Household of Groom of the Chamber, or Groom of the Privy Chamber, Groom of the Robes, Groom of the Stole, and Groom of the Stool.

History

The English etymology for Groom comes from the East Anglian occupational name for a servant or a shepherd, from Middle English grom(e) ‘boy’, ‘servant’ (of uncertain origin), which in some places was specialized to mean ‘shepherd’.

Popularity

Groom ranks 5,545 out of 88,799 in popularity in the United States and is also common in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

List

Groom, Texas

Groom is a town in Carson County, Texas, United States. The population was 574 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Amarillo, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is on Interstate Highway 40 (Historic Route 66) 42 miles (68 km) east of Amarillo and 215 miles (346 km) west of Oklahoma City.

Geography

Groom is located in the southeastern corner of Carson County at 35°12′11″N 101°6′24″W / 35.20306°N 101.10667°W / 35.20306; -101.10667 (35.203112, -101.106710).Interstate 40 bypasses the town to the north, with access from Exits 110 through 114. Historic Route 66 (Business Route 40) passes through the center of town.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.75 square miles (1.93 km²), all of it land.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 587 people, 240 households, and 178 families residing in the town. The population density was 778.7 people per square mile (302.2/km²). There were 290 housing units at an average density of 384.7 per square mile (149.3/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 94.72% White, 0.17% Native American, 0.17% Asian, 2.90% from other races, and 2.04% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.77% of the population.