quword 趣词
Word Origins Dictionary
- handsome
- handsome: see hand
- hands-off (adj.)
- by 1895, from verbal phrase; see hand (n.) + off (adv.). Hands off! as a command to desist is by 1810.
- hands-on (adj.)
- by 1969, originally in reference to the use of computers in education; see hand (n.) + on (adv.).
- handshake (n.)
- also hand-shake, 1801, from hand (n.) + shake (n.). Hand-shaking is attested from 1805; to shake hands is from 16c.
- handsome (adj.)
- c. 1400, handsom "easy to handle, ready at hand," from hand (n.) + -some (1). Sense extended to "fit, appropriate" (1550s, implied in handsomely), then "having fine form, good-looking, agreeable to the eye" (1580s). Meaning "generous, on a liberal scale" (of rewards, etc.) first recorded 1680s.
[Americans] use the word "handsome" much more extensively than we do: saying that Webster made a handsome speech in the Senate: that a lady talks handsomely, (eloquently:) that a book sells handsomely. A gentleman asked me on the Catskill Mountain, whether I thought the sun handsomer there than at New York. [Harriet Martineau, "Society in America," 1837]
Related: Handsomeness. For sense development, compare pretty (adj.). Similar formation in Dutch handzaam "tractable, serviceable." - handsomely (adv.)
- 1540s, "conveniently," from handsome + -ly (2). Meaning "attractively" is from 1610s; "liberally, generously" from 1735.
- handstand (n.)
- also hand-stand, 1897 as an athletic feat, from hand (n.) + stand (n.).