handless

English

Pronunciation

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

Etymology 1

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”).

Adjective

handless (comparative more handless, superlative most handless)

1. Without any hands.
   • c. 1602, 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.
   • 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC:

     We’ll take a dram for luck, and as soon as this handless man of mine has the collops ready, we’ll dine and take a hand at the cartes as gentlemen should.

   • 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.

Related terms

• handed
• hands-free
• hands-off

 

Translations

without a hand

• Bulgarian: безрък (bezrǎk)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 無手／无手 (wúshǒu)

• Czech: bezruký (cs)
• Finnish: kädetön (fi)
• German: handlos, armlos
• Greek:

  Ancient: ἄχειρος (ákheiros)

• Ottoman Turkish: چولاق (çolak), قولاق (kolak)
• Polish: bezręki (pl)
• Portuguese: maneta (pt)
• Russian: безру́кий (ru) (bezrúkij)
• Spanish: manco (es)

Etymology 2

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

Adjective

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.

Translations

without a handle — see handleless

Anagrams

• handsels