Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BRIDE, n. [Sax. bryd; Sw. brud; D. bruid; Ger. braut; Dan. brud; Arm. pryed, pried; W. priod-verch, priodas-verch, a bride; Ir. brideog; W. priodi o verch, to be married; Ar. prietaat, to marry; Corn. benenpriot, a bride; W. priod-vab, a bride-mab, bridegroom; Arm. pridolidh, wedlock. It seems, by the Celtic dialects, that bride is primarily an adjective used with the name of maid or woman, as bridegroom is the same word with the name of a man. In W. priawd, the root of priodas, signifies appropriate, proper, fit; priodi, to render appropriate, to espouse, to marry.]

1. A woman new married. – Johnson. But the name is applied to a woman at the marriage festival, before she is married, as well as after the ceremony.
2. A woman espoused, or contracted to be married. The case of Lewellyn, prince of Wales. – Henry's Hist. of Britain, b. iv, ch. i, sect. 2. [This is the true original sense of the word.]