Noun: handsel
| Singular | handsel |
| Plural | handsels |
Sample Sentences
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their first good handsel of breath in this world [1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):]
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Our present tears here, not our present laughter, / Are but the handsels of our joys hereafter. [1648, Robert Herrick, Hesperides:]
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That whoso hardy hand on her doth lay ,
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It dearly shall abye and death for handsel pay [1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:]
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"I see the first handsel that God gives them on their voyage to the Land of Promise; thirst and bitterness."
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(From Contemplations, Book Five, Contemplation 1, The Waters of Marah (Found in volume 1 of The Works of Joseph
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Hall, edited by Peter Hall, published by Talboys, Oxford, 1837, page 88)) [1612, Joseph Hall, Contemplations on the Historical Passages of the Old Testament:]
Nouns inflected like handsel
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Middle English handsell, hanselle, from Old English handselen and/or Old Norse handsal (literally “hand-gift”). Cognate with Scots hansel, Danish handsel. See: Middle English Nouns '
handsell', Old English Nouns '
handselen'.