broom

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C1 — Advanced

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a cleaning implement for sweeping; bundle of straws or twigs attached to a long handle
  2. noun any of various shrubs of the genera Cytisus or Genista or Spartium having long slender branches and racemes of yellow flowers
  3. noun common Old World heath represented by many varieties; low evergreen grown widely in the northern hemisphere

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English brom, from Old English brōm (“brushwood”), from Proto-West Germanic *brām (“bramble”) (compare Saterland Frisian Brom, West Frisian brem, Dutch braam, German Low German Braam), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrem-, from *bʰer- ‘edge’. Related to brim, brink. Replaced English besom (from Old English besma (“broom, rod”)), which is now restricted in meaning to a particular kind of broom. (shotgun): So called because it is (like the cleaning utensil) long and held similarly to a besom and “cleans” what is in front.

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