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Instead of taking a bridal portrait, my niece and her fiancé had photos taken together which she insisted on calling groomals. While I guess this term is the accepted name for this new trend, I found it annoying.

What is an adjective form of groom equivalent to bridal?

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  • 4
    The word that popped into my head is gromulent. Use it wisely.
    – Matt E. Эллен
    Nov 21, 2011 at 18:58
  • Groomal? Gromulal? Gromulan?
    – Chris B. Behrens
    Nov 21, 2011 at 19:33
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    Under duress, possibly?
    – JeffSahol
    Nov 21, 2011 at 21:00
  • It may or may not be "accepted," but groomal is funny, and that gets points from me.
    – horatio
    Nov 22, 2011 at 18:30

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The OED has groomish but it's a nonce word with only one citation.

Interestingly, bridal wasn't formed from bride and the suffix -al. It was originally a noun bride ale, that is, "wedding feast". Since 1600 it was used as an adjective by association with words with the -al suffix, like nuptial, natal, mortal, etc.

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  • Interesting! So maybe something derived from "bachelor party" or even "stag party" would be more apt.
    – erickson
    Nov 21, 2011 at 19:12
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    Yes. I nominate Bacchanal.
    – MetaEd
    Nov 21, 2011 at 19:39
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    "Groomish" actually appears in surprisingly many books (on Google Book Search), but in the great majority of them, as in the OED's citation, it relates to horses rather than weddings -- and even when it does relate to weddings, it sense is closer to "resembling a groom, in the manner of a groom" than to "of a groom, pertaining to a groom".
    – ruakh
    Nov 21, 2011 at 23:06
  • While something like "baccalaureal" might be a more defensible derivation from "bachelor", I will have a lot more fun complimenting my niece on her "bacchanal photos!"
    – erickson
    Nov 22, 2011 at 18:38
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    I think this means that the groom's things are "bridal" as well.
    – Marcus Adams
    Jan 12, 2012 at 20:39
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Technically speaking I'm thinking the photos your niece took should be referred to as bridal on the basis that the online Merriam-Webster and Oxford Dictionaries refer to "bridal" as applying to both the bride AND the newly married couple. In addition, the Merriam Webster and the Canadian Oxford Dictionary also use the definition of "relating to a bride or a wedding".

I agree that there may be a need to coin a term that more specifically refers to the groom but in the context of your example such a term does not seem necessary.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bridal http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/bridal

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3

Groomal sounds OK to me, as in Groomal Shower.

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    It's probably just a cultural difference, but "groomal shower" sounds to me like ending the stag night with a bucket of ice-cold water...
    – Peter Taylor
    Nov 21, 2011 at 22:36
  • In relation to "bridal" this word would seem to make sense. Is it actually used by a significant amount of people though? The article that uses the term was published in 1981 and I haven't been able to find a dictionary entry for "groomal" with the exception of one in the Urban Dictionary (urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Groomal%20Shower).
    – Bjorn
    Nov 21, 2011 at 23:07
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Groomal or Nuptial

"Groomal" to refer to something specific to the groom to contrast with "bridal" when it refers to something specific to the bride. So, a picture of the bride would be a "bridal portrait" while one of the groom would be a "groomal portrait".

These would contrast with "nuptial portrait" for a picture of bride and groom together, the example that provoked this question.

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