handsel meaning (obsolete): definition, etymology and quotations

handsel

noun

UK /ˈhænd.səl/

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

Obsolete A lucky omen.

A gift given at New Year, or at the start of some enterprise or new situation, meant to ensure good luck.

their first good handsel of breath in this world1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):
Our present tears here, not our present laughter, / Are but the handsels of our joys hereafter.1648, Robert Herrick, Hesperides:

Archaic Price, payment; especially the first installment of a series.

That whoso hardy hand on her doth lay , It dearly shall abye and death for handsel pay1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
"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))1612, Joseph Hall, Contemplations on the Historical Passages of the Old Testament:

Derived terms: Handsel Monday, the first Monday of the new year, when handsels, presents are given to servants, children

handsel

verb

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

To give a handsel to.

She would leave a gold guinea to hansel the baby.2002, Joseph O'Connor, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 55:

To inaugurate by means of some ceremony; to break in.

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.1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 42:

To use or do for the first time, especially so as to make fortunate or unfortunate; to try experimentally.

Indeed there is no contrivance of our body, but some good man in Scripture hath hanselled it with prayer.1647, Thomas Fuller, Good Thoughts in Worse Times:
The lads, dressed like their papas, seemed uncomfortable in their new clothes (many that day handselled their first pair of boots), […].1886, Gustave Flaubert, chapter IV, in Eleanor Marx-Aveling, transl., Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners […], London: Vizetelly & Co., […], →OCLC, part I, page 28:

1 more example

[…]the success of the one did not handsel usurpation[…]of the other's.1994, Michael Brodsky, ***, Four Walls Eight Windows, →ISBN, page 38:

Derived terms: unhandseled