Meaning
Someone who arranges romantic introductions for others - professionally, socially, or from sheer incorrigible interest in other people's weddings. The word has widened to anyone who pairs things profitably, from boxers to database players. Warm or wry depending on outcome; Fiddler on the Roof fixed the affectionate archetype, and the busybody charge is never far behind. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The trade is ancient and, in most of its history, respectable: the medieval village priest matchmaking as a peripheral duty, the Hindu astrologer sanctifying matches by the stars, and the shadchan of the Ashkenazi communities, a professional broker between families whose trade grew amid the Crusades' disruption - and who was vilified by the late nineteenth century for commercializing affairs of the heart, a lecture every culture since has repeated. Frontier North America pressed chaperones and self-employed busybodies into service at the social dances; Singapore institutionalized the role in a government unit; and the 2010s brought it back in reaction to the dating apps, complete with personality tests, television series, and one DNA-matching venture. The word itself is transparent - match plus maker - and Wiktionary's extensions run to boxing officials and game servers, which pair players rather less tenderly. The related idiom promises hell to pay: matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a professional matchmaker
- matchmaking
- play Cupid
Usage Examples
- The village matchmaker kept a ledger of widows, carters, and one persistent accordionist.
- Aunt Peggy styled herself the family matchmaker; three marriages and one lawsuit bore her out.
- The boxing matchmaker's art, like the romantic one, is arranging meetings both parties regret.