marriage broom
n.— «Lasko bought a few of her mother’s brooms (she stresses the artisanal nature of these objects; Curt decides not to use one to shoo Enzo off his leg) and spent time with broom maker Marlow Gates at his Leicester, North Carolina, studio, learning to strip bark, sand wood and weave handles together into what is called a “marriage broom.”» —“Britta’s bees [with video]” by Brendan Fitzgerald C-Ville (Charlotteville, Virginia) Dec. 25, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Melissa in Greensboro, North Carolina, has been sparring with the Gen Z members of her family over the shifting meanings of words. Her kids use aesthetic as an adjective to mean “aesthetically pleasing,” as in That’s so aesthetic. They also refer to...
A Navy veteran recalls hearing the Southern expression fat lighter from his wife’s family in Troy, Alabama. It denotes an old, resin-rich pine wood that becomes highly flammable as it ages. Fat lighter is prized as kindling and often called fat...
The phrase “marriage broom” comes from the use of a broom for enacting marriages among slaves in the American South. Official marriages having been prohibited among black slaves, unofficial marriage were enacted by the couple jumping over a broom which had been laid on the ground. “Jumping the broom” can still be observed in some black marriages in the US.