Hypertext Webster Gateway: "handsel"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Handsel \Hand"sel\, n. [Written also {hansel}.] [OE. handsal,
hansal, hansel, AS. hands?lena 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 on 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.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Handsel \Hand"sel\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Handseled} or
{Handseled}; 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.
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