Once considered harmless and practical words—groom, groomed, and grooming—are now often used to evoke anxiety and fear in parents.
Professionals who work with words should consider calming some of the fear that now surrounds these terms.
The noun groom
Traditionally, the noun groom referred to a person who cared for horses.
They met at her stable when the groom took his niece, Claire, to riding lessons.
Originally, the word likely meant boy or man. The use of groom to describe a man on his wedding day is a shortened form of bridegroom.
At the end of the ceremony, the bride and groom sipped wine from a shared glass.
The gerund grooming has historically referred to the act of caring for hair or fur.
You can reduce shedding by grooming your cat daily.
The participle groomed
The past participle, groomed, signifies a neat appearance and is seen as a positive social trait.
The man was described as 18 to 25 years old, well groomed, with dark curly hair.
He is articulate, personable, groomed, passionate, intelligent and a family man.
The verb groom
The verb to groom originates from the tasks of a groom, such as caring for a horse.
One of his duties was to help groom and feed the horses that pulled the cannons.
More broadly, the verb means “to tend or attend to carefully; to give a neat, tidy appearance to.”
Eyebrows are a bit of a thing for me, so much so that my face genuinely looks odd when I don’t groom and powder them.
Grooming was crucial when a horse was set to be in a parade or show. Over time, the verb to groom evolved to mean “to prepare someone for a specific role.” An early instance of this was in reference to preparing a political candidate to run for office.
Grover Cleveland was being groomed for his first Presidential term.
From politics, the term expanded to other professions:
The Music School in Montreal grooms pop musicians.
They are grooming freshmen and sophomores to eventually take over behind center.
In a broader sense, almost anything can groom itself or be groomed.
For years, the city has groomed itself as a nexus of culture.
The last 10 to 15 minutes of the meeting will be devoted to grooming daylilies.
In 2005, the OED included this definition:
groom (transitive verb): Of an animal: to clean the skin, hair, etc., of; Also reflexive: to clean and tidy itself.
The cat grooms the rabbit, and in the morning and evening they chase each other around the yard.
You must brush to reduce the chances of your cat developing fur balls in her stomach from swallowing the shedding fur that she grooms off herself.
Finally, in 2007, this usage emerged:
groom (transitive verb): Of a paedophile [US pedophile]; to befriend or influence (a child), now especially via the internet, in preparation for future sexual abuse.
While this latest definition of groom pertains to the disturbing act of gaining a child’s trust for sexual exploitation, the term has broadened to include preparing a child not only for potential immoral behavior but also for adopting certain viewpoints on various subjects.
Public schools grooming kids with critical race theory, ‘sexual chaos,’ and ‘racial confusion’
If the intent is to refer specifically to the alarming practice of gaining a child’s trust to exploit them sexually, speakers and writers could add a qualifier to the word grooming, similar to some British publications:
In his leaving speech to staff, Harding expressed pride in the paper’s investigations into tax avoidance and child sex grooming. —Independent
Alternatively, if the objection is not to “sex grooming” but rather to classroom discussions on controversial topics, the term that may be more appropriate is indoctrination.
However, the common understanding of “indoctrination” does not allow for open discussion:
indoctrination: (noun) the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically.
As the king muses in the musical, navigating new ideas can be quite perplexing.
<p>The post The Many Meanings of “Groom” and “Grooming” first appeared on DAILY WRITING TIPS.</p>
