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Gammerstang commented on the word hang out the broom
(verb) - (1) An old country phrase, dating back to 1820, for the absence of a wife from her home. To hang out the broom meant that, the good wife being away, the man's friends and cronies might come and make merry in the kitchen.
--Edwin Radford's Encyclopædia of Phrases and Origins, 1945
(2) To sweep broom-field, to inherit the whole property; Eastern England.
--James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1855
January 15, 2018