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Definition of Handsel
1. n. A sale, gift, or delivery into the hand of another; especially, a sale, gift, delivery, or using which is the first of a series, and regarded as an omen for the rest; a first installment; an earnest; as the first money received for the sale of goods in the morning, the first money taken at a shop newly opened, the first present sent to a young woman on her wedding day, etc.
2. v. t. To give a handsel to.
Definition of Handsel
1. Noun. (obsolete) A lucky omen. ¹
2. Noun. A gift given at New Year, or at the start of some enterprise or new situation, meant to ensure good luck. ¹
3. Noun. The first installment, or first payment of money in a day or series. ¹
4. Verb. (transitive) To give a handsel to. ¹
5. Verb. (transitive) To inaugurate by means of some ceremony; to break in. ¹
6. Verb. (transitive) To use or do for the first time, especially so as to make fortunate or unfortunate; to try experimentally. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Handsel
1. to give a gift to [v -SELED, -SELING, -SELS or -SELLED, -SELLING, -SELS]
Medical Definition of Handsel
1. 1. A sale, gift, or delivery into the hand of another; especially, a sale, gift, delivery, or using which is the first of a series, and regarded as on omen for the rest; a first installment; an earnest; as the first money received for the sale of goods in the morning, the first money taken at a shop newly opened, the first present sent to a young woman on her wedding day, etc. "Their first good handsel of breath in this world." (Fuller) "Our present tears here, not our present laughter, Are but the handsels of our joys hereafter." (Herrick) 2. Price; payment. Handsel Monday, the first Monday of the new year, when handsels or presents are given to servants, children, etc. Origin: OE. Handsal, hansal, hansel, AS. Handslena giving into hands, or more prob. Fr. Icel. Handsal; hand hand + sal sale, bargain; akin to AS. Sellan to give, deliver. See Sell, Sale. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)
Lexicographical Neighbors of Handsel
Literary usage of Handsel
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. British Popular Customs, Present and Past: Illustrating the Social and by Thomas Firminger Thiselton Dyer (1900)
"It is on this account called handsel Monday, handsel being in Scotland the ...
Among the rural population, Auld handsel Monday, ie handsel Monday old style, ..."
2. The Practitioner by Gale Group, ProQuest Information and Learning Company (1888)
"... official and other records at his disposal. Lessons on Prescriptions and the
Art of Prescribing. By W. handsel GRIFFITHS, Ph.D., LRCP Ed. New edition. ..."
3. The British Drama: Comprehending the Best Plays in the English Language by Sir Walter Scott, Walter Scott (1804)
"I'll handsel his women's clothes for him. Go, get me pen and ink; I must write
to Vizard, too. Fortune, this once assist me as hefore : Two such machines ..."
4. Edinburgh Medical Journal (1876)
"457 Monthly Report on the Progress of Therapeutics. By W. handsel GRIFFITHS,
Ph.D., LRCP Ed., . . . . . .459 PART IV.- MEDICAL NEWS. Appointments, . ..."
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