jump the broom
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jump the broom(stick) verb phrase To get married, usually without the benefit of clergy. The expression has a long history in the American South, often signifying a mock ceremony symbolizing marriage, as in part of the script of a serenade or shivaree. [from a folk tradition in several European cultures, especially Wales (see Alan Dundes,' "Jumping the Broom": The Origin and Meaning of an African American Custom, Journal of American Folklore 109: 234-39, 1996); cf CUD jump over the besom (at jump) “live together without being married”; DARE labels this phrase “chiefly South, South Midland, Texas”]
1939 Hall Coll (Emerts Cove TN) They never made the bride to jump the broom with me. 1941 Laughlin Word-list Buncombe Co 25 jump over the broom-stick = to get married (in some sections: common-law marriage). 1960 Hall Smoky Mt Folks 65 = to get married, referring to an old protection against witches, by which a bride who jumps over a broomstick as she enters her new home protects herself. 1961 Coe Ridge OHP-340B That’s the reason they say they jump the broomstick now is when they go to get married. 1995 Montgomery Coll: jump the broomstick = to elope and get married, often without the benefit of clergy. In Cades Cove there was no ceremony, formal or informal, of acting this out; the term was used only figuratively (Shields). 2002 Myers Best Yet Stories 239 While none of our folk ever used this ceremony, we nearly always used that expression. Rather than saying “getting married,” we would say they are “jumping the broom.”