handicraft

Etymology

It is altered from English from handcraft,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} by association with handiwork,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which Barnhart and Etymonline give only as possible;^[7][8] the OED also compares handy.^[2] The base is Middle English hond-craft,^[9] from Old English handcræft (“skill or power of the hand”),^{[10][9][8][7]} a compound of hand and cræft,^[7][8] which the OED compares with Old Saxon handkraft (“strength or power of the hands”).^[2][10] On the middle stage, Barnhart and Etymonline see an early hændecraft as already an altered form,^[7][8] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged cites handie-crafte;^[11] but Dictionary.com reads Middle English hendi craft (“dexterous skill”),^[12] and the OED suspects that the passage in Laȝamon's “Brut” behind these forms, hænde craftes, is a phrase with the adjective hend.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A manual art, trade or occupation: 1523, in an Act of Parliament of 14 & 15 Henry VIII.^[2][11] Barnhart dates the altered form to about 1300 and Etymonline to about 1200,^[7][8] while Hoad has "manual skill" from the 15th century and "manual art" from the 16th.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old English handcræft meant the skill or power of the hands: Ælfric uses it of a paralysed beggar, búton handcræfte, without the use of his hands.^[10][2] It also meant a skill or craft of the hands, a line the altered form took over.^[2][9] After the trade (1523) came skilled manual labour in general, before 1535, in T. More.^[2] From 1547 to 1828 a handicraft could also be the craftsman himself,^[2][3] and Johnson (1755), who defined the word as manual occupation or work done by the hand, quoted Gulliver's Travels for "gentlemen and handicrafts" in that sense.^[13] Since 1891 the word has also named the things made,^[2] and it now often suggests domestic or decorative objects made by traditional methods.^[2] The adjective, "manual, practical", is recorded from 1559.^[2]

Timeline

• Old English – handcræft, the skill or power of the hand.^[10][2]
• 1523 – a manual art, trade or occupation.^[2][11]
• before 1535 – skilled manual labour, craftsmanship.^[2]
• 1547 – a craftsman (obsolete by 1828).^[2]
• 1559 – adjective, manual, practical.^[2]
• 1891 – an item made by hand, or such items as a group.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A trade or craft of making things by hand, such as weaving or pottery, often as a pastime and now especially for domestic or decorative objects.^[11][14][2]
2. The articles made in this way, often in the plural: The village market sells local handicrafts.^[11][14][2]
3. Skill with the hands; craftsmanship.^[14][2][3]
4. (obsolete, 1547–1828) A craftsman.^[2][11][3]

Adjective

1. Involving or relating to handicraft; manual.^[2]

Word family

• handicrafter
• handicraftship
• handicraftsman

Related words

• handcraft
• handiwork
• hand
• craft
• handy

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
10. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
11. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins