handsel

/ˈhænd.səl/

Etymology

From Middle English handsell, hanselle, from Old English handselen and/or Old Norse handsal (literally “hand-gift”). Cognate with Scots hansel, Danish handsel.

handsel means A lucky omen. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 91 out of 100.

Why this word is great

HANDSEL — [Noun, Verb] A gift given at the start of a new year or venture, intended to bring good luck, or the act of giving such a gift. From Middle English handsell, hanselle, from Old English handselen and Old Norse handsal (literally "hand-gift"), combining hand + a derivative related to giving or sale. Unlike "gift" (which is unmoored from time or intention) or "inauguration" (which marks a beginning without the talismanic weight), "handsel" is a charm against uncertainty, a small pact with fortune. It is the silver coin pressed into a child’s palm on New Year’s morning, the first payment to a craftsman "for luck," the bread and salt laid at the threshold of a new home—superstition and hope distilled into a tangible thing, because sometimes we need to hold our blessings in our hands to believe they are real.

noun

A lucky omen.
A gift given at New Year, or at the start of some enterprise or new situation, meant to ensure good luck.“their first good handsel of breath in this world”
Price, payment; especially the first installment of a series.“That whoso hardy hand on her doth lay , It dearly shall abye and death for handsel pay”

verb

To give a handsel to.“She would leave a gold guinea to hansel the baby.”
To inaugurate by means of some ceremony; to break in.“And it is better undecently to faile in hanseling the nuptiall bed, full of agitation and fits, by waiting for some or other fitter occasion, and more private opportunitie, lest sudden and alarmed, than to fall into a perpetuall miserie, by apprehending an astonishment and desperation of the first refusall.”
To use or do for the first time, especially so as to make fortunate or unfortunate; to try experimentally.“Indeed there is no contrivance of our body, but some good man in Scripture hath hanselled it with prayer.”