broom

英 [bruːm] 美 [brum]

1. broom与groom的区别。
2. 具有同源性的单词：broom, brush.
3. 根据具有同源性的单词去区分易混的单词。
4. brush + room => broom.

broom 扫帚，金雀花

词源同bur, 毛刺果，bristle, 刺毛。原指一种灌木，后指灌木扎的清扫工具。

broom: broom: [OE] Broom was originally the name of the yellow-flowered bush; its application to the long-handled brush did not come about until the 15th century (the underlying notion is of a brush made from broom twigs tied to a handle). The plant-name occurs throughout the Germanic languages, but it is applied to quite a wide range of plants: Old High German brāmma, for instance, is a ‘wild rose’; Old Saxon hiopbrāmio is a ‘hawthorn bush’; and English bramble probably comes from the same source.
=> bramble
broom (n.): Old English brom "broom, brushwood," the common flowering shrub whose twigs were tied together to make a tool for sweeping, from Proto-Germanic *bræmaz "thorny bush" (cognates: Dutch braam, German Brombeere "blackberry"), from PIE root *bh(e)rem- "to project, a point."

Traditionally, both the flowers and sweeping with broom twigs were considered unlucky in May (Suffolk, Sussex, Wiltshire, etc.). The witch's flying broomstick originally was one among many such objects (pitchfork, trough, bowl), but the broomstick became fixed as the popular tool of supernatural flight via engravings from a famous Lancashire witch trial of 1612.

2. I couldn't afford more than a broom cupboard to set up office in.: 我的钱也就够搞一间鸡窝大的办公室。