A besom is what we think of as a witch’s broom, a bundle of twigs lashed to a handle. The word is from the Old English besema which was once the common word for a broom.
However the twigs often came from the shrub called broom and over time the name of the plant was transferred to the long-handled brush, which is now usually called a broom rather than a besom.
Broom is cognate with bramble and comes from a root that originally seems to have meant any kind of thorny bush.
Broom and Besom Word Origins
A besom is what we think of as a witch’s broom, a bundle of twigs lashed to a handle. The word is from the Old English besema which was once the common word for a broom.
However the twigs often came from the shrub called broom and over time the name of the plant was transferred to the long-handled brush, which is now usually called a broom rather than a besom.
Broom is cognate with bramble and comes from a root that originally seems to have meant any kind of thorny bush.