handsel

American  

[han-suhl] / ˈhæn səl /

Or hansel

noun

1. a gift or token for good luck or as an expression of good wishes, as at the beginning of the new year or when entering upon a new situation or enterprise.

2. Rare. a first installment of payment.

3. Rare. the initial experience of anything; first encounter with or use of something taken as a token of what will follow; foretaste.

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verb (used with object)

handseled, handseling, handselled, handselling

1. to give (someone) a gift for good luck or as an expression of good wishes, especially at the beginning of the new year or the launch of a new enterprise..

2. Older Use. to inaugurate auspiciously.

3. Older Use. to use, try, or experience for the first time.

handsel British  

/ ˈhænsəl /

noun

1. a gift for good luck at the beginning of a new year, new venture, etc

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verb

1. to give a handsel to (a person)

2. to begin (a venture) with ceremony; inaugurate

Other Word Forms

• unhandseled
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of handsel

First recorded before 1050; Middle English handselne “good-luck token, good-will gift,” Old English handselen “manumission,” literally “hand-gift” ( see hand, sell ¹); cognate with Danish handsel, “earnest money.” The Middle English word was influenced by Old Norse handsal “handshake, handclasp (for sealing a purchase or a promise)”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

handsel handseled handselled handselling

Aleman, Cervantes, Lesage, Defoe and Fielding were inspired to imitation, and today Lazarillo is acclaimed as the prototype of the picaresque novel, as a handsel of the arriving era of realism in European literature.

From Time Magazine Archive

Then Hauskuld said, "Let us close the matter then, and handsel him peace on behalf of thy sons".

From The story of Burnt Njal From the Icelandic of the Njals Saga by George Webbe Dasent

“Buy a hair-line, or a line for Jacke, If you any hair or hemp-cord lack, Mistris, here’s good as you need use; Bid fair for handsel, I’ll not refuse.”

From A History of the Cries of London Ancient and Modern by Charles Hindley

And, as I trow, said Sir Sagramore, ye shall have the same handsel that he had.

From Le Mort d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Sir Thomas Malory

Mighty pretty handsel for the Red Cow, my lambkin!

From John Bull The Englishman's Fireside: A Comedy, in Five Acts by George Colman

"Liberty has always been bought with life, and the glory of the greatest nations handseled with the blood of their founders."

From Remember the Alamo by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

The full moon handselled with the stars the teeth, like grains of      pearl, That on the laughing face of wine now dance, now      stirless lie.

From The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume III by John Payne

Then he made peace between them and clad them all in sumptuous dresses of honour and handselled them with precious jewels of land and sea.

From The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume IV by John Payne

Bethink thee of the net they handselled for thee!

From The House of Atreus by E. D. A. (Edmund Doidge Anderson) Morshead

‘Yea, even so let it be,’ quoth Folk-might; and stepped forward and took Bristler by the hand, and handselled him self-doom. 

From The Roots of the Mountains; Wherein Is Told Somewhat of the Lives of the Men of Burgdale by William Morris

And between their clasped hands it lay,—the bit of orange ribbon that had handselled all their happiness.

From The Bow of Orange Ribbon A Romance of New York by Theo. Hampe

Mary, who is handselling her new aerial perspectives upon a pair of old worsted stockings trod out in Cheshunt lanes, sends love.

From The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 6 Letters 1821-1842 by Mary Lamb

So now he gave forth the handselling grandly with open mouth, and this is the beginning thereof.

From The Story of Grettir the Strong by William Morris