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: