handless - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

• IPA(key): /ˈhændləs/
• Rhymes: -ændləs

From Middle English handles, from Old English *handlēas, from Proto-Germanic *handulausaz (“handless”), equivalent to hand +‎ -less. Cognate with West Frisian hânleas (“handless”), German handlos (“handless”), Icelandic handlauss (“handless”).

handless (comparative more handless, superlative most handless)

1. Without any hands.
   • c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:
     Together with his mangled Myrmidons, That noseless, handless, hack'd and chipp'd, come to him
2. (obsolete) Not handy; awkward.
   • 1891, Dugald Ferguson, Vicissitudes of Bush Life in Australia and New Zealand, page 55:
     This, however, was a thing that, left to himself, would have simply rendered Bill Lampiere a most handless workman at everything he attempted.

• handlessness

• handed

• hands-free

• hands-off

without a hand

• Bulgarian: безрък (bezrǎk)
• Chinese:
  Mandarin: 無手 / 无手 (wúshǒu)
• Czech: bezruký (cs)
• Finnish: kädetön (fi)
• German: handlos, armlos (de)
• Greek:
  Ancient Greek: ἄχειρος (ákheiros)
• Polish: bezręki (pl)
• Portuguese: maneta (pt)
• Russian: безру́кий (ru) (bezrúkij)
• Spanish: manco (es)
• Turkish:
  Ottoman Turkish: چولاق (çolak), قولاق (kolak)

From handleless, by haplology, under the influence of etymology 1 above.

handless (not comparable)

1. Without a handle.
   • 1812, John Galt, Voyages and travels in the years 1809, 1810, and 1811‎[1], page 106:
     She gave him a few coppers from the handless jug.
   • 1836, The Metropolitan, Volume 15, page 148:
     One battered, spoutless, handless, japanned-in jug, that did not contain water, for it leaked.
   • 2003, Manners... More than Etiquette, page 91:
     Chinese soup is sipped in a handless cup (Chinese soup bowl) with its own soupspoon.
   • 2006, Elsieferne V. Stout, Dundy County Babe‎[2], page 44:
     The leftover dough from the loaves would be rolled out with a handless, wooden, rolling pin.

• handsels