Hand Idioms

Several words have found themselves used in a number of phrases. We looked at 'touch' last time and this time it's 'hand'.

Hand to mouth is first used as early as 1600

First hand (and also second hand) both seen in writing for the first time in the middle of the 15th century.

At hand, used in the sense of 'nearby' is first seen around 1300, but had been used for a century to mean 'soon'.

In hand, as in 'undercontrol', is first found around 1200.

On the other hand (and on the one hand, of course) is first recorded in 1630

Hands up first appears in print in 1863, meaning it is highly unlikely this phrase was ever used by highwaymen as they had had their day decades earlier.

Hand-to-hand fighting was not heard of until 1400.

Hand in hand was seen in 1500, but only in the literal sense of having hands clasped together, not until 1570 was it used to mean 'concurrently'.

Handrails may have been used before 1793, but it did not appear in writing until that year.

Hand jive, that seated dance which is far too energetic for the likes of me, debuted in 1958.

Freehand drawing must have been used since man first drew on cave walls, but nobody said so until 1848.

Hand grenade may seem like a modern-ish weapon, but any bomb thrown by hand was referred as such from as early as 1630.

Stagehands have only been employed since 1865.

Farmhands, remarkably, have only been known as such since 1835.

Handmade has been seen since 1610.

Handout, as in alms to the poor, first came into use in 1882.

Deckhands have been employed since 1839.

Hand me downs have been worn only since 1826.

Off hand, as in off the cuff, has been used since 1690.

Hell in a handbasket is, as we know, coming to us from across the Atlantic. is seen since 1867. Interestingly, the idea of going to heaven in a handbasket (ie easy passage) is first seen in 1853.

Handholds were not used before the 1640s.

Handstands were not performed before 1897.

Handbags were not sold until 1854.

Handguns have been known as such since the middle of the 14th century.

Handshakes have been known since 1801.

Note, as ever, the dates given are the first surviving written record. Even if that is the first written usage, the term would certainly have been in use prior to that in order to appear in print.