handfast
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To betroth by joining hands, in order to allow for cohabitation before the celebration of marriage; to marry provisionally.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "And the remembrancer of her to hold The hand-fast to her lord. I have given him that"
- "No, Sir Priest or Sir Preacher, Catherine is not my wife— […] she is not my wife, but she is handfasted with me, and that makes her as honest a woman. [...] When we are handfasted, as we term it, we are man and wife for a year and a day—that space gone by, each may chuse another mate, or, at their pleasure, may call the priest to marry them for life—and this we call handfasting."
- "Would the lass but consent to go abroad in the unhallowed place at this awful season and hour of the night, she was as firmly handfasted to the Devil as if she had signed a bond with her own blood; […]"
- "A vyrgine made handfast to Christ."
Etymology
From Middle English hondfast, past participle of Middle English hondfesten (“to betroth”), from Old Norse handfesta (“to strike a bargain, pledge”), itself from hönd (“hand”) + festa (“to fasten, fix, affirm”), perhaps from a Proto-Indo-European root *pHst-.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: hondfast, hondfesten, handfesta, -
Usage
Inflected Forms
handfasts (plural)
handfasts (present, singular)
handfasting (participle, present)
handfasted (participle, past)
handfasted (past)
more handfast (comparative)
most handfast (superlative)