broom n.

Old English bræmbel "rough, prickly shrub" (especially the blackberry bush), with euphonic -b- (which then caused the vowel to shorten), from earlier bræmel, from Proto-Germanic *bræmaz (see broom). Related: Brambleberry "blackberry" (late Old English).

also broom-stick, "stick or handle of a broom," 1680s, from broom (n.) + stick (n.). Earlier was broom-staff (1610s). Broom-handle is from 1817. The witch's flying broomstick originally was one among many such objects (pitchfork, trough, bowl), but the broomstick became fixed as the popular tool of supernatural flight via engravings from a famous Lancashire witch trial of 1612. Broomstick marriage, in reference to an informal wedding ceremony in which the parties jump over a broomstick, is attested from 1774.

c. 1400, scrobben, "to rub hard; rub or scratch (someone, an animal)," a variant of shrubben (c. 1300), which is perhaps from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German schrubben, schrobben "to scrub," or from an unrecorded Old English cognate of these, or from a Scandinavian source (such as Danish skrubbe "to scrub"). Probably ultimately from the Proto-Germanic root of shrub, an ancient cleaning tool. Compare the evolution of broom, brush (n.1), also compare scrub (n.1).

Meaning "to cancel" is attested from 1828, probably from notion of "to rub out, erase" an entry on a listing. It was popularized during World War II with reference to air missions. Related: Scrubbed; scrubbing.