Forms: 1 bróm, 2–4 brom, 3–6 brome, 5–6 brume, (6 Sc. broym, broume), 6 browme, 6–7 broome (7– Sc. brume), 5– broom. [OE. bróm (from WGer. *bráma-), pointing to OTeut. type *brǣmo-z: cogn. with OHG. brâmo, MHG. brâme masc. ‘bramble’ (whence mod.G. brombeere), also with Ger. bram ‘broom,’ OTeut. type *brǣmon-; and OHG. brâma, mod.Ger. and MDu. brame, mod.Du. braam fem., bramble, thorn, (MDu. brame also ‘broom’), OTeut. type *brǣmôn- fem.; also with BRAMBLE, q.v. The derivation of the Teut. stem brǣm- is uncertain, but the earliest sense of the various forms appears to be ‘thorny shrub,’ whence ‘bramble,’ ‘furze or gorse,’ and by confusion with the latter ‘broom,’ which seems to be the only Eng. sense.]
1. A shrub, Sarothamnus or Cytisus Scoparius (N.O. Leguminosæ), bearing large handsome yellow papilionaceous flowers; abundant on sandy banks, pastures, and heaths in Britain, and diffused over Western Europe. Also the genus to which this belongs, and the allied genus Genista, including the White Broom, and Giant or Irish Broom cultivated in gardens, and many other species.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 32. Genim bromes ahsan.
c. 1150. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 545. Genesta, brom.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, 1226. Lytel herde gromes That kepen bestis in the bromes.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., 6 b. Yet may he … selle all the wode, brome, gorse, fyrs, braken.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 7 b. Vnder the roughe broume.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 34. Brome … of some is called Mirica for the bitternesse of his tast.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, vi. 98. The young tender buds of Broome are … gathered and preserued in pickle.
1783. Cowper, Task, VI. 170. The Broom, Yellow and bright, as bullion unalloy’d Her blossoms.
1800. Wordsw., To Joanna. ’Twas that delightful season when the broom, Full-flowered … Along the copses runs in veins of gold.
1854. Stanley, Sinai & Pal., i. (1858), 20. The Retem, or wild broom, with its high canopy and white blossoms … is the very shrub under which … Elijah slept in his wanderings.
2. Entering into the name of various other plants used for sweeping, or in other respects fancied to be akin to the broom proper; as BUTCHER’S BROOM, SPANISH BROOM (a kind of grass), q.v.
3. An implement for sweeping, a besom: originally one made of twigs of broom, heather, etc., fixed to a ‘stick’ or handle; now the generic name for a besom of any material. Cf. BESOM sb.1 2.
14[?]. Songs Costume, 64. So many sellers of bromys, Say I never.
1481. Caxton, Reynard (Arb.), 15. Alle ranne … eueryche wyth his wepen … some with a brome.
1538. Bale, Thre Lawes, 177. Brom, brom, brom, brom, brom. Bye brom bye bye bromes for shoes and powcherynges; botes and byskyns for newe bromes, Brom, brom, brom.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 44. The greene new brome sweepth cleene.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 396. I am sent with broome before, To sweep the dust behinde the doore.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort. (1729), 214. Move it sometimes with a Broom or Whisk, that the Seeds clog not together.
1708. Hearne, Collect. (1885–6), II. 110. My chimneys with high flying broom No longer thou shalt clean.
1798. Southey, Lyric P., To Spider, iii. Where is he whose broom The earth shall clean?
1829. J. W. Croker, in Croker Papers (1884), II. xiv. 18. As they say of a broom that it is dirty to keep other things clean.
b. fig. and transf.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1347/2. Thus did the broome of iustice sweepe awaie these noisome cobwebs.
1621. Sanderson, Serm. (1681), I. 213. Thy new broom, that now sweepeth clean all discontents from thee, will soon grow stubbed.
1855. Dickens, Dorrit, I. xxiv. ‘If he hadn’t been cut short [= died] while I was a new broom.’
4. A sweeping tail of a horse; cf. broom-tail in 6.
1616. Surfl. & Markh., Country Farm, 136. There are manie wrinkles and plaits in his broome or brushing taile.
5. Comb. General relations: a. attributive, as broom-besom, -blossom, -brush, -field, -flower, -grove, -handle, -head, -plant, -salve, -shaft, -shank, -stalk, -tree, -wood; b. objective, as broom-maker, -seller.
1693. Urquhart, Rabelais, III. xvii. Three whisks of a *broom-besom.
1814. Jones, in Life Chalmers (1851), I. 379. It is … scrubbed off with a birch or broom besom.
c. 1314. Guy Warw. (1840), 292 (Halliw.). In a *brom feld ther wer hidde Thre hundred Sarrazins.
1633. Ames, Agst. Cerem., II. 258. One instrument … for the pastures, and another for the broome-feilds.
1595. Spenser, Sonn., xxvi. Sweet is the *Broome-flowre.
1846. Sowerby, Brit. Bot. (1864), III. 14. Henry VIII., king of England, was wont to drinke the distilled water of broom-flowers, against surfets and diseases thereof arising.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 66. Thy *broome-groues; Whose shadow the dismissed Batchelor loues, Being lasse-lorne.
1826. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 51/1. He entered the yard … with a *broom-handle in one hand and a rope with a noose to it in the other.
1882. Howells, in Longm. Mag., I. 56. Wherever the piano-forte penetrates, lovely woman lifts her fingers from the needle, the *broom-handle, and the washboard, and places them on its keys, never again to be restored to those odious implements.
1817. Parl. Debates, 1344. Two *broom-makers, who sold their brooms in adjoining stalls.
c. 1500. Cocke Lorell’s B. (1843), 10. Potters, *brome sellers, pedelers.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 44. *Brome salue … to salue poore mennes shepe, that thynke terre to costely.
1764. T. Brydges, Homer Travest., I. 32. Let Hector … with his trusty *broomshaft douse ye.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xviii. ‘Her and the gudeman will be whirrying through the blue lift on a *broomshank.’
1646. Buck, Rich. III., I. 7. Geoffry Plantagenet used to weare a *Broome-stalke in his Bonnet.
1846. Sowerby, Brit. Bot. (1864), III. 13. Before the introduction of hops. *broom-tops were often used to communicate a bitter flavour to beer.
a. 1450. Wyclif, Jer. xlviii. 6 (MS. E). Ȝee shul be as iencian trees [later hand *broom trees] in desert.
1810. Campbell, Poems, I. 8. A *broomwood blossom’d vale.
6. Special comb.: broom-boy, ? a street-sweeper or broom-seller; broom-bush, Parthenium Hysterophorus; † broom-cat, an old name for the hare; broom-cod, the seed-vessel of the broom; broom-cypress, Kochia scoparia, (see BELVEDERE 2); broom-dasher (dial.), a dealer in fagots, brooms, etc. (cf. haberdasher); broom-dog (Sc.), an instrument for eradicating broom (Jam.); broom goose-foot = broom-cypress; broom-grass, Andropogon scoparius; broom-heath, the cross-leaved heath, Erica tetralix; broom-hook, ? = broom-dog; broom-land, land overgrown with broom; broom-sedge, a species of coarse grass, ? Spartina; broom-squire (see quots.); broom-tail (of a horse), a long bushy tail (cf. 4); broom toed-flax = broom cypress; broom-weed, a herbaceous plant (Corchorus siliquosus) of the West Indies and tropical America, from the leaves of which a drink is prepared; † broom-wort, a name applied by Gerard to species of Thlaspi; by others to some plant not identified (? broomrape).
1593. Nashe, Four Lett. Confut., 127. *Broome boyes, and cornecutters.
c. 1300. Names of Hare, in Rel. Ant., I. 133. The *bromkat, The purblinde, the fursecat.
1509. Will of Lewkenor (Somerset Ho.). A coler of gold sett with diuerse perlys & *brome codde.
1868. Stanley, Westm. Ab., iii. 148. The broomscods of the Plantagenets.
1864. Times, 12 Dec., 9/4. Heaths and plantations … occupied by brickmakers and *‘broom-dashers.’
1660. in Select. fr. Harl. Misc. (1793), 380. The king exchanged his woodbill for Francis Yates’s *broom-hook.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 183 (J.). I have known Sheep cured of the Rot, when they have not been far gone with it, only by being put into *Broom-lands.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 9. Land … which bore only *broom-sedge—a thin, worthless grass.
1825. D. Garrow, Hist. Lymington, 31–2. They [besoms] are composed of heath, which grows in abundance all over the New Forest…. The manufacturers of this little useful domestic article are termed *‘Broom Squires.’
1857. Kingsley, Two Y. Ago, II. xiv. 129. ‘Broom-squires?’ ‘So we call in Berkshire squatters on the moor who live by tying heath into brooms.’
1684. Lond. Gaz., No. 1960/4. Stolen or strayed … a Chesnut Sorrel Gelding … with a *broom Tail. Ibid. (1704), No. 3981/4. A … Mare … with a large Brome Tail.
1786. P. Browne, Jamaica, 147. *Broom-weed … is generally used in besoms by the negroes.
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb., I. (1668), Table Hard Wds., *Broomwort is an Herb with broun coloured leaves, and beareth a blew flower, and most commonly grows in Woods.
