handhaben.
to handle, to wield, to employ (a tool, often not in a resultative sense but rather indicating the manner or quality of employment)
Meaning & usage
to handle, to wield, to employ (a tool, often not in a resultative sense but rather indicating the manner or quality of employment)
to go about, to deal with, to handle (a situation or matter, often not in a resultative sense but rather indicating the general strategy or manner in which a challenge is approached)
Wie willst du die Sache handhaben?
to protect someone, to enforce their rights
Where this word comes from
From Middle High German hanthaben (1349). The earliest sense is “to keep, protect, maintain”, hence eventually a loan translation of Old French maintenir and/or Latin manūtenēre. The possible French origin and the earlier attestation of Middle Dutch hanthaven (1286) and Middle Low German handhafen (1330) suggest that the word may have been borrowed through these. The Germanic formation must be denominal, which is particularly obvious in the northern languages (where the verb “to have” is hebben), but is also seen in High German from the invariably regular conjugation. The nominal element may be Middle High German hanthabe (“haft, handle”), from Old High German hanthaba, anthaba (also Old Saxon handhava; Middle Dutch hanthave only attested 1490), but the semantics seem problematic. Alternatively a new compound from hant + Middle High German habe, Middle Dutch have (“possession, belongings”); cf. Middle High German hanthab (“stolen good”, ca. 1350).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.