Yesterday was my wedding anniversary–17 years since I first said “I do” to the love of my life. 😀 So naturally, today I thought I’d take a look at the words!
Wed is from Old English weddian, which means “to pledge oneself, vow; to betroth, to marry.” This is similar to other Germanic languages’ words, and while those other languages still reflect the original in their words today, English is a bit unique. While we retained wed in wedding, most often people today don’t say they hope to wed so-and-so–it sounds archaic.
English has instead adopted the French marier as well, giving us two options where other languages have stuck with one. Marry has pretty much the same meaning as wed, and it joined the English language in the 1300s, so it’s certainly been around a while.
Kind of interesting to think, though, of how the two have been assigned certain typical functions, right? Like we never ask for a piece of marriage cake. Nor do we look for our marriage gown. And yet we don’t exchange wedding vows on the day. We’ve come to view wedding as the specific event in which we bind ourselves, and marriage as the ongoing state (there’s the old-fashioned sounded wedlock for that too, but we don’t hear that much anymore, do we?). Which is rather interesting, since its early uses were also just for the ceremony, the initial pledging.
Regardless, I’m looking forward to another year with my husband. If you’re married, in what month is your anniversary? I’d never imagined I would be a June bride–I always wanted a December wedding, but the allure of a beach wedding instead drew me away from all my childhood plans, LOL, and I have no regrets! How about you?
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.
Happy Anniversary! I always find word usage fascinating. My husband and I will celebrate 36 years of wedded bliss in August. I chose the month and date because I wanted him all to myself on his birthday, which was two days after our wedding. 😉
We will happily celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary on July 1st. We are taking a trip to Yellowstone National Park a couple weeks later in celebration. Looking forward to and pray for many, many more years together before being called to our heavenly home.
We married over Memorial Day weekend 24 years ago. Our wedding was originally going to be in November, but then-fiancee and I planned to move across country in the summer, and figured movibg the date up was easier than coming back to get married after living elsewhere for a few months or trying to do the planning for a different location. Our oldest will graduate from high school 6 days before our 25th anniversary. Just FYI 😉
Happy Anniversary! Alan and I celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary in March 2018. More in love every day. 🙂
Happy Anniversary! Today happens to be our 35th wedding anniversary. Our lives have drastically changed due to many health challenges the last ten years. We never could have imagined this life thirty five years ago, yet we continue on. Doing the best we can with what we have.
Happy Anniversary!
Very interesting Roseanna. Russell & I were married in May (1971) as he was in the Navy at the time stationed in Spain. He was going to be home on leave in May so that is how we picked that date.
Blessings, Tina