The story
- Old Norse · derived fromhandsal
- Old English · inherited fromhandselen
- Middle English · inherited fromhandsell
- English todayhandsel
From Middle English handsell, hanselle, from Old English handselen and/or Old Norse handsal (literally “hand-gift”). Cognate with Scots hansel, Danish handsel.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.