I found myself the other day thinking about how goofy a word "elope" is. Elope. E-lope. Sounds like a violet fluffy muppet. Or a round fruit, for some reason.

So I've decided to merge (marry?) my love of words with the topic of weddings. And came up with a few interesting etymological tidbits.Do you ever need to know them? Sure don't. But they can make for fun shower-fodder.

~ Bridal. From the Middle English bridale which means "wedding feast."

~ Bridelope. The Old English word for a wedding ceremony was "bridelope", literally "bridal run," in reference to conducting the bride to her new home.

~ Elope itself comes from the from Anglo-French" aloper" which literally means "run away from a husband with one's lover."

~ Husband. The English word husband, even though it is a basic kinship term, is not a native English word. It comes ultimately from the Old Norse word hosbondi, meaning 'master of a house,' which was borrowed into Old English as hosbonda. ( Interestingly, Old English did have a feminine word related to Old Norse hosobndi that meant 'mistress of a house' namely, hosbonde.)

~ Hymn is from the Greek "hymenaios" meaning "belonging to wedlock, wedding, wedding song," from Hymen, the Greek god of marriage.

~ Mariachi or a "Mexican strolling musical band," is from Mexican Spanish, from French mariage/ "marriage" , so called because such music was provided at wedding celebrations.

...more to come...