Bridely

Copyright © 1980 Jack Ziegler (1942–2017)

I’m reading a funny book: The Portable Veblen, by Elizabeth McKenzie (Penguin Press, 2016). The story involves two people who are engaged to be married. From Chapter 2, Sauerkraut and Mace (italics mine): 

Part of her wanted to do all the normal bridely things and the other part wanted to embrace her disdain for everything of the sort. 

The word’s homophonic quality is what landed it as today’s post. 

To the mental eye, bridely says “bride-like” or “bride-worthy”; but to the ear, with a little pronunciation fun, it says “bridle-like.” Thus it is a perfect choice for the paragraph, as well as a testament to the power of word selection. 

[The following graphic has nothing to do with the book, although — fictionally speaking — one of the book’s characters might be sympathetic to the subject matter.]

The bill of fare for the Immigrant Dining Room at Ellis Island on June 5, 1923.
Exhibited in “A Century of Dining Out: The American Story in Menus, 1841–1941”
from the collection of Henry Voigt, at the Grolier Club, New York, on view through July 29th.
Photo courtesy of the Grolier Club.