A glossary of Tudor and Stuart words, especially from the dramatists

by Walter W. Skeat

handsel, hansel, a gift or present, as an omen of good luck or an expression of good wishes. Dunbar, New Year’s Gift, iii. As vb., to use for the first time, ‘My lady . . . is so ravished with desire to hansel her new coach’, Eastward Ho, ii. 1 (Touchstone). The verb ‘to hansel’, meaning ‘to use a thing for the first time’ is very common in prov. use in Scotland, and in various parts of England fr. Northumberland to Cornwall, see EDD. (s.v. Handsel, vb. 12).

handwolf, a tame wolf, wolf brought up by hand. Beaumont and Fl., Maid’s Tragedy, iv. 1 (Amintor).

handydandy, a children’s game, in which one child conceals something between the hands, and the other guesses in which hand it is. ‘Handy dandy, prickly prandy, which hand will you have?’ Chapman, Blind Beggar, p. 6. See EDD. (s.v. Handy).

hane, a ‘khan’, an Eastern inn (unfurnished); a caravanserai; ‘Hanes to entertain travellers’; Howell, Foreign Travell, Appendix, p. 84; ‘Hanes for the relief of Travellers’, Sandys, Travels, p. 57 (Nares). See [cane].

hang-by, a hanger-on, a dependant. Gosson, School of Abuse, ed. Arber, p. 40; Beaumont and Fl., Honest Man’s Fortune, iv. 2 (Orleans). In prov. use in W. Yorks.; see EDD. (s.v. Hang, vb. 1 (5)).

hanger, a loop or strap or a sword-belt from which the sword was hung. Hamlet, i. 2. 157; B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. i. 5 (Matthew).

hank, a hold, a power of check or restraint; ‘I have a hank upon you’, Otway, Soldier’s Fortune, v. 5 (Beaugard). In prov. use in various parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Hank, sb.¹ 7).

Hans-in-kelder, a familiar term for an unborn infant. Dryden, Wild Gallant, v. 2; Wycherley, Love in a Wood, v. 6 (Sir Simon); Marvell, The Character of Holland, 66. See Stanford. Dutch Hans in Kelder, lit. ‘Jack in Cellar’, an unborn child; cp. the Swabian toast Hänschen im Keller soll leben, ‘dies sagt man bei dem Gesundheit-trinken auf eine schwangere Frau’ (Birlinger); Bremen dial. Hänsken im Keller (Wtb.).

happily, perhaps, possibly. Titus Andron. iv. 3. 8; Hamlet, i. 1. 134; ii. 2. 402.

haqueton, hacqueton, a stuffed jacket worn under armour. Spenser, F. Q. ii. 8. 38. ME. aketoun (Chaucer, C. T. B. 2050); OF. auqueton, alquetun, O. Prov. alcoton, ‘hoqueton, casaque rembourrée, originairement en coton’ (Levy); Span. algodon, Port. algodão, cotton, Arab, al-qotun, see Dozy, Glossaire, 127.