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.
(archaic) Price, payment; especially the first installment of a series.
handsel (third-person singular simple present handsels, present participle handseling or handselling, simple past and past participle handseled or handselled)
(transitive) To give a handsel to.
(transitive) To inaugurate by means of some ceremony; to break in.
(transitive) To use or do for the first time, especially so as to make fortunate or unfortunate; to try experimentally.
• Dahlens, handles
Source: Wiktionary
Hand"sel, n. [Written also hansel.] Etym: [OE. handsal, hansal, hansel, AS. handsa giving into hands, or more prob. fr. Icel. handsal; hand hand + sal sale, bargain; akin to AS. sellan to give, deliver. See Sell, Sale. ]
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. [Obs.] Spenser. Handsel Monday, the first Monday of the new year, when handsels or presents are given to servants, children, etc.
Hand"sel, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Handseled or Handseled (; p. pr. & vb. n. Handseling or Handselling.] Etym: [Written also hansel.] Etym: [OE handsellen, hansellen;cf. Isel. hadsala, handselja. See Handsel, n.]
1. To give a handsel to.
2. To use or do for the first time, esp. so as to make fortunate or unfortunate; to try experimentally. No contrivance of our body, but some good man in Scripture hath handseled it with prayer. Fuller.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
24 February 2025
(noun) (astronomy) position of a planet as defined by its angular distance from its perihelion (as observed from the sun)
Coffee dates back to the 9th century. Goat herders in Ethiopia noticed their goats seem to be “dancing” after eating berries from a particular shrub. They reported it to the local monastery, and a monk made a drink out of it. The monk found out he felt energized and kept him awake at night. That’s how the first coffee drink was born.
