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From hand + cuff(“end of shirtsleeve”).[1] Possibly an adaptation of Middle Englishhandcops(“shackles for the hand, handcuffs”), from Old Englishhandcops, from hand + cops, cosp(“fetter, chains”), but due to a lack of continuity (centuries between Old English and the modern term), generally analyzed as a re-invention.[1] Nominal form first appears c. 1591 in the publications of John Florio. Verbal form first appears c. 1649.
1912, Arthur M. Winfield, The Rover Boys in the Air:
The sheriff had brought along all the handcuffs necessary, and in a few seconds he had handcuffed Koswell. He threw a pair of the steel bracelets to Dick and another pair to Tom, and the Rovers had the satisfaction of handcuffing Josiah Crabtree and Tad Sobber. Then the sheriff made prisoners of the rest of the crowd[…]
If he were a king, as his swagger and opera-singing occasionally suggested, he would stretch the constitution any way he wanted. In fact, as he admitted with a grin, it handcuffed him.
1880, George Bernard Shaw, chapter XVII, in The Irrational Knot:
After all, since our marriage has proved a childless one, the only reason for our submitting to be handcuffed to one another, now that our hearts are no longer in the arrangement, is gone.
