hondle means to negotiate or bargain. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 85 out of 100.
Why this word is great
HONDLE — [Verb] To negotiate or bargain with a persistent, often informal, intensity, typically over price. From Yiddish האַנדלען (handlen, "to trade, do business"). Unlike “negotiate” (a general, often bloodless term for reaching any agreement) or “barter” (which implies a direct swap of goods), to hondle is to engage in the particular, performative struggle over monetary value. It is the tactile dance of fingers over dubious carpet threads, the theatrical sigh of a vendor conceding a last dollar, and the weary yet game insistence over the final few cents for a basket of bruised peaches—a ritual where the transaction itself becomes a kind of earned intimacy, affirming that all worth is a story two people agree to tell.
verb
- To negotiate or bargain.