handsel or han·sel [ han-suhl ]
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. a first installment of payment.
3. the initial experience of anything; first encounter with or use of something taken as a token of what will follow; foretaste.
verb (used with object), hand·seled, hand·sel·ing or (especially British) hand·selled, hand·sel·ling.
4. to give a handsel to.
5. to inaugurate auspiciously.
6. to use, try, or experience for the first time.
OTHER WORDS FROM HANDSEL
un·hand·seled; (especially British) un·hand·selled, adjective
WORDS RELATED TO HANDSEL
allowance, alms, award, benefaction, benefit, bequest, bestowal, bonus, boon, bounty, charity, contribution, courtesy, dispensation, donation, endowment, favor, grant, gratuity, hand
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Origin: First recorded before 1050; Middle English handselne “good-luck token, good-will gift,” Old English handselen “manumission,” literally “hand-gift” (see hand, sell1); cognate with Danish handsel, “earnest money.” The Middle English word was influenced by Old Norse handsal “hand-shake, hand-clasp (for sealing a purchase or a promise).”
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