Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Handsel

Hand′sel (hănd′sĕl), n. [Written also hansel.] [OE. handsal, hansal, hansel, AS. handselena 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 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.

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 Handselled (hănd′sĕld); p. pr. & vb. n. Handseling or Handselling.] [Written also hansel.] [OE handsellen, hansellen; cf. Icel. 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.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.