Etymology

handyman

H4A1N1D2Y4M3A1N1

Today it means: A person who does small tasks and odd jobs, especially building repairs and the like. Full definition →

Middle English man ← Old English mann ← Proto-West Germanic *mann
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic*handuz
  2. Proto-West Germanic*handu
  3. Old Englishhand
  4. Middle Englishhond
  5. Englishhand
  6. Englishhandy
  7. Proto-Indo-European*mon-
  8. Proto-Germanic*mann-
  9. Proto-West Germanic*mann
  10. Old Englishmann
  11. Middle Englishman
  12. English todayhandyman

From handy + -man.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.