Handsel
January 3rd 2026
The Dictionaries of the Scots Language (DSL) document the long history of this term for a good-luck gift, typically given to mark “an inaugural occasion, event or season”. It has many uses, both as a noun and as a verb, marking all kinds of milestones, from the New Year or the first visit to a friend’s new home, to simply the first time that new clothes are worn.
The earliest citation comes from Barbour’s The Brus in 1375, when King Robert stays in a village near Turnberry Castle: “Sic hansell to the folk gaf he”.
In Sir William Fraser’s The Scotts of Buccleuch (1635), we find the earliest citation of the phrase Hansel Monday, the first Monday of the year: “Send some moneyes heir to me again Hansel Monday that I may gratifie my master and other seruants”.
From the eighteenth century onwards, examples appear where handsel was used in a broader sense to refer to a new taste or experience. The following, from 1737, is collected within the Old-lore Miscellany of tales from the Highlands and Islands: “The bairnies went by sea … and got the first handsell of sea sickness”.
The term is still used. In February 2000, a columnist in the Scotsman remarked that “There is clearly some thought going on as to how to handsel the new parliament if it ever opens”. More recently, the former Makar Liz Lochhead selected it as the title for her 2023 poetry collection, A Handsel – New and Collected Poems.
Dictionaries of the Scots Language would like to thank Bob Dewar for illustrating our Scots Word of the Week feature.
