1781.—"I fancy myself now one of the most formidable men in Europe; a blunderbuss for Joe, a pair of double barrels to stick in my belt, and a cut and thrust hanger with a little pistol in the hilt, to hang by my side."—Lord Minto, in Life, i. 56.
" "Lost out of a buggy on the Road between Barnagur and Calcutta, a steel mounted Hanger with a single guard."—Hicky's Bengal Gazette, June 30.
1883.—"... by farrashes, the carpet-spreader class, a large canjar, or curved dagger, with a heavy ivory handle, is carried; less for use than as a badge of office."—Wills, Modern Persia, 326.
HANSALERI, s. Table-servant's Hind. for 'horse-radish'! "A curious corruption, and apparently influenced by saleri, 'celery'"; (Mr. M. L. Dames, in Panjab N. and Q. ii. 184).
HANSIL, s. A hawser, from the English (Roebuck).
HANSPEEK, USPUCK, &c., s. Sea Hind. Aspak. A handspike, from the English.
HARAKIRI, s. This, the native name of the Japanese rite of suicide committed as a point of honour or substitute for judicial execution, has long been interpreted as "happy despatch," but what the origin of this curious error is we do not know. [The N.E.D. s.v. dispatch, says that it is humorous.] The real meaning is realistic in the extreme, viz., hara, 'belly,' kiri, 'to cut.'
[1598.—"And it is often seene that they rip their own bellies open."—Linschoten, Hak. Soc. i. 153.
[1615.—"His mother cut her own belly."—Foster, Letters, iv. 45.]
1616.—"Here we had news how Galsa Same was to passe this way to morrow to goe to a church near Miaco, called Coye; som say to cut his bellie, others say to be shaved a prist and to remeane theare the rest of his dais."—Cocks's Diary, i. 164.