handsel

English

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

handsel (plural handsels)

(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.
- 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):
  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.
(archaic) Price, payment; especially the first installment of a series.
- 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
- 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))

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

gift given at New Year

payment; especially the first installment of a series.

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

(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.
(transitive) To inaugurate by means of some ceremony; to break in.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 42:
  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.
(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.
- 1886, Gustave Flaubert, chapter IV, in Eleanor Marx-Aveling, transl., Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners […], London: Vizetelly & Co., […], →OCLC, part I, page 28:
  The lads, dressed like their papas, seemed uncomfortable in their new clothes (many that day handselled their first pair of boots), […] .
- 1994, Michael Brodsky, ***, Four Walls Eight Windows, →ISBN, page 38:
  […] the success of the one did not handsel usurpation […] of the other's.

Old Norse handsal, see hånd and salg.

handsel