handsel

English

Alternative forms

• hansel

Etymology

From Middle English handsell, hanselle, from Old English handselen and/or Old Norse handsal (literally “hand-gift”). Cognate with Scots hansel, Danish handsel.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhænd.səl/, /ˈhæn.səl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ændsəl, -ænsəl

Noun

handsel (plural handsels)

1. (obsolete) A lucky omen.
2. A gift given at New Year, or at the start of some enterprise or new situation, meant to ensure good luck.
   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; , London: Iohn Williams , →OCLC:

     their first good handsel of breath in this world

   • 1648, Robert Herrick, Hesperides:

     Our present tears here, not our present laughter, / Are but the handsels of our joys hereafter.

3. (archaic) Price, payment; especially the first installment of a series.
   • 1612, Joseph Hall, Contemplations on the Historical Passages of the Old Testament:

     "I see the first handsel that God gives them on their voyage to the Land of Promise; thirst and bitterness."
     (From Contemplations, Book Five, Contemplation 1, The Waters of Marah (Found in volume 1 of The Works of Joseph
     Hall, edited by Peter Hall, published by Talboys, Oxford, 1837, page 88))

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     That whoso hardy hand on her doth lay ,
     It dearly shall abye and death for handsel pay

Derived terms

• Handsel Monday, the first Monday of the new year, when handsels or presents are given to servants, children, etc.

Translations

Verb

handsel (third-person singular simple present handsels, present participle handselling or handseling, simple past and past participle handselled or handseled)

1. (transitive) To give a handsel to.
   • 2002, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 55:

     She would leave a gold guinea to hansel the baby.

2. (transitive) To inaugurate by means of some ceremony; to break in.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes , London: Val Simmes for Edward Blount , →OCLC:
     , Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, p.86:

     And it is better undecently to faile in hanseling the nuptiall bed, full of agitation and fits, by waiting for some or other fitter occasion, and more private opportunitie, lest sudden and alarmed, than to fall into a perpetuall miserie, by apprehending an astonishment and desperation of the first refusall.

3. (transitive) To use or do for the first time, especially so as to make fortunate or unfortunate; to try experimentally.
   • 1647, Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Worse Times:

     Indeed there is no contrivance of our body, but some good man in Scripture hath hanselled it with prayer.

   • 1994, Michael Brodsky,

***, Four Walls Eight Windows, →ISBN, page 38:

[…] the success of the one did not handsel usurpation […] of the other's.

Derived terms

• unhandseled

Anagrams

• Dahlens, handles

Danish

Etymology

Old Norse handsal, see hånd and salg.

Noun

handsel

1. (obsolete, finance) down payment, security
2. (obsolete) a good omen

Further reading

• “handsel” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog