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GROOM
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GROOM , in See also:modern usage a male servant attached to the stables, whose duties are to attend to the cleaning, feeding, currying and care generally of horses. The earliest meaning of the word appears to be that of a boy, and in 16th and 17th See also:century literature it frequently occurs, in pastorals, for a shepherd See also:lover. Later it is used for any male attendant, and thus survives in the name for several officials in the royal See also:household, such as the grooms-in-waiting, and the grooms of the See also:great chamber. The groom-See also:porter, whose See also:office was abolished by See also:George III., saw to the preparation of the See also:sovereign's apartment, and, during the 16th and 17th centuries, provided See also:cards and See also:dice for playing, and was the authority to whom were submitted all questions of gaming within the See also:court. The origin of the word is obscure. The O. Fr. gromet, See also:shop boy, is taken by See also:French etymologists to be derived from the See also:English. From the application of this word to a See also:wine-taster in a wine See also:merchant's shop, is derived See also:gourmet, an epicure. According to the New English See also:Dictionary, though there are no instances of groom in other See also:Teutonic See also:languages, the word may be ultimately connected with the See also:root of " to grow." In " bridegroom," a newly married See also:man,
See also:life; he lived to preside over the See also:birth and first days of his other creation, the society of See also:Brothers of See also:Common Life. He died of the See also:plague at See also:Deventer in 1384, at the See also:age of 44.
The See also:chief authority for See also:Groot's life is See also: See also:Arthur, The Founders of the New Devotion, 19o5); also the Chronicon Windeshemense of Johann See also:Busch (ed. K. Grube, 1886). An See also:account, based on these See also:sources, will be found in S. Kettlewell, Thomas a Kempis and the Brothers of Common Life (1882), i. c. 5; and a shorter account in F. R. Cruise, Thomas a Kempis, 1887, pt. ii. An excellent See also:sketch, with an account of Groot's writings, is given by L. Schulze in See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie (ed. 3) ; he insists on the fact that Groot's theological and ecclesiastical ideas were those commonly current in his See also:day. and that the attempts to make him " a reformer before the See also:Reformation " are unhistorical. (E. C. B.)
GROOVE-TOOTHED See also:SQUIRREL, a large and brilliantly coloured Bornean squirrel, Rhithrosciurus macrotis, representing a genus by itself distinguished from all other members of the See also:family Sciuridae by having numerous See also:longitudinal grooves on the front See also:surface of the incisor See also:teeth; the molars being of a simpler type than in other members of the family. The tail is large and See also:fox-like, and the ears are tufted and the flanks marked by See also:black and See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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