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A secondary meaning of Old English ealu, the ancestor of Modern English ale, was “feast, banquet,” at which the drinking of ale was a prominent activity. There were a number of these feasts and banquets that survived into the 19th century, but the oldest and best-established was the bride-ale, or wedding feast, attested in Old English as brydealu. In Middle English the ale half of the word had lost its stress and was associated with the noun suffix –al (as in funeral) and the adjective suffix (as in parental). By the 18^th^ century, bridal was perceived primarily as an adjective, as it is today.
Examples of bridal in a Sentence
Renan Botelho, Footwear News, 17 June 2025
Storing And Caring Anyone who's ever completed a bridal registry knows the depth and breadth of options.
—Mary Catherine McAnnally Scott, Southern Living, 14 June 2025
Starr Bowenbank, People.com, 20 June 2025
Fresh off staging its first-ever bridal catwalk in Barcelona in May, Vivienne Westwood will present its latest menswear designs in Milan (since 2017, the label has typically staged a co-ed show in Paris featuring both men’s and women’s looks).
—Leah Dolan, CNN Money, 20 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for bridal
Cite this Entry
“Bridal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bridal. Accessed 26 Jun. 2025.
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