Of goods Not new; previously owned and used by another.
2
Of a dealer Dealing in such merchandise.
3
Figuratively Indirect; from a secondary source; not firsthand.
In the light of recent history it is somewhat curious that this decisive power of the professional secondhand dealers in ideas should not yet be more generally recognized.1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 417:
What's love got to do, got to do with it? / What's love but a secondhand emotion?1984, “What’s Love Got To Do With It”, performed by Tina Turner:
3 more examples
So nearly every name comes from a second hand source. The exception to this rule has been the vigilantes themselves. Rube Mathis and Jack Wells, both admitted to participating, and Mathis identified his brother.2013, Bruce Crow, A Land of Strangers: Cane Creek Tennessee's Mormon Massacre and its Tragic Effects on the People Who Lived There:
However, Partridge’s information is second-hand, and requires verification.2014, James Lambert, “A Much Tortured Expression: A New Look At `Hobson-Jobson'”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 27, number 1, page 60:
The relation of Tristram's death is thus distanced from the narrative to which it belongs, and it is also distanced in that we do not see it happen with our own eyes, but hear of it by a second-hand report which introduces it incidentally, not for its own sake.2014, Jill Mann, Life in Words: Essays on Chaucer, the Gawain-Poet, and Malory:
4
Of cigarette or cigar smoke Inhaled from the air near someone else smoking.
exposure to secondhand smoke from cigarette-smoking colleagues
Childrenswear is now the fastest growing sector of secondhand. […] The huge increase in the market for childrenswear shows another way in which older generations are getting into secondhand.2023 March 12, Lauren Cochrane, “Cheap, cool and kind to nature: how secondhand became UK fashion’s main attraction”, in The Observer:
secondhand
adv
Etymology From second + hand.
1
In a used or previously-owned condition.
It was almost an article of faith with McEwen never to buy new if he could buy secondhand.1996, Peter Golding, Black Jack McEwen: Political Gladiator, →ISBN, page 50:
He glanced back at the Jeep, which he'd bought secondhand a dozen years ago and now, fifteen years old, was gaining on "classic" status.2004, Ruth Doan MacDougall, Henrietta Snow, →ISBN, page 47: