n.
Gaw hanselle
‘gift (at New Year)’
(Modern English handsel, hansel)A compound of OE hand (cp. Go handus, OIcel hǫnd, OFris hand, hond, OS hand, OHG hant) + a n. formed on the root of the v. OE sellan ‘to give’ (PGmc *saljan-; cp. Go saljan, OIcel selja etc.). Aside from OE <handselen> (ClGl 1 4169, glossing Lat. mancipatio ‘making over, transfer, purchase’), which takes as its second element OE selen (fem.) ‘grant, gift, tribute; munificence’, the only close analogues are in the Scandinavian languages: cp. esp. the common OIcel hand(s)-sal ‘the transference of a right, bargain, duty to another by joining hands’ (with second element OIcel sal (neut.) ‘sale, bargain’) and its various compounds, and the same construction in OSw handsal (Sw handsol) ‘money etc. handed over to any one, gratuity, tip’ (see further OED); and other similar compounds. The possibility of some influence from ON in the formation of the OE and ME compounds (probably, given the formal disparity in their second elements, via loan translation) has therefore been suggested (thus Kullnick 1902: 15, Knigge 1885: 75, Morris, Skeat 1892: 478, (partly) MED; and see further Dance 2003: 424–6). Others derive straightforwardly from OE handselen (thus TGD, GDS), and OED is sceptical of either etymon (comparing instead Dan handsel and the more remote Ger. Handgeld, Handgift, Handkauf and Fr. étrenne, OFr. estreine).
PGmc Ancestor
*xanðuz + *saljan-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
hand(s)-sal (neut.), ‘the transference of a right, bargain, duty to another by joining hands’
(ONP hand(s)-sal (sb.); hand-sala (sb.); hand-sals-)
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Icel handsal, OSw handsal
OE Cognate
cp. handselen ‘making over, transfer, purchase’
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
CC4
MED has a range of attestations (from the Trin.Hom. onwards), without evident dial bias.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 66, 491