besom

English

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

From Middle English besme, beseme, from Old English besma, besema (“besom, broom, rod”), from Proto-Germanic *besamô (“broom”). Cognate with Scots besom, bisom, West Frisian biezem, Dutch bezem, Low German bessen, German Besen.

Traditional besom.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbiː.zəm/

Noun

besom (plural besoms)

1. A broom made from a bundle of twigs tied onto a shaft.
   • 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."

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.

Derived terms

• besom pocket

Translations

broom

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: метла (от пръчки) (bg) (metla (ot prǎčki))
• Burmese: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: varpuluuta, varsiluuta (fi)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Besen (de) m, Reisigbesen m
• Interlingue:
• Italian: scopa di saggina
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: slota f
• Norwegian: sopelime m
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: метла (ru) f (metla)
• Scottish Gaelic: sguab f
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

troublesome woman

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: noita-akka (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Besen (de) m
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can

See also

• besom broom on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

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, 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

• mebos, mobes

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Serbo-Croatian

Noun

besom (Cyrillic spelling бесом)

1. instrumental singular of bes

Noun

besom (Cyrillic spelling бесом)

1. instrumental singular of besa