handsel.
A lucky omen.
Meaning & usage
A lucky omen.
A gift given at New Year, or at the start of some enterprise or new situation, meant to ensure good luck.
Price, payment; especially the first installment of a series.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English handsell, hanselle, from Old English handselen and/or Old Norse handsal (literally “hand-gift”). Cognate with Scots hansel, Danish handsel.
To give a handsel to.
To inaugurate by means of some ceremony; to break in.
To use or do for the first time, especially so as to make fortunate or unfortunate; to try experimentally.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English handsell, hanselle, from Old English handselen and/or Old Norse handsal (literally “hand-gift”). Cognate with Scots hansel, Danish handsel.
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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.