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
18 April 2025
(noun) the crease at the junction of the inner part of the thigh with the trunk together with the adjacent region and often including the external genitals
The first coffee-house in Mecca dates back to the 1510s. The beverage was in Turkey by the 1530s. It appeared in Europe circa 1515-1519 and was introduced to England by 1650. By 1675 the country had more than 3,000 coffee houses, and coffee had replaced beer as a breakfast drink.
