Did you know?
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
Anneke Knot, Glamour, 14 May 2025
For her ceremony in N.Y.C., the actress opted for pale green in the form of a flowing Carolina Herrera gown (which coordinated with wife Christine Marinoni's tie) and got her fix of bridal white with a bouquet of peonies.
—Alex Apatoff, People.com, 29 Apr. 2025
Jackie Fields, People.com, 12 May 2025
The interviewer pointed out the most recent Savage X Fenty drop was a bridal collection, but the 9x Grammy winner wasn’t having it.
—Regina Cho, VIBE.com, 6 May 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 21 May. 2025.
Copy Citation
Share