handwork
(ˈhændwɜːk)
Forms: 1 -weorc, 3–5 -werk, 6– work; also β. 3–5 hande-, (honde-) -werk, wark.
[OE. hand-weorc, found beside the more frequent hand ᵹeweorc handiwork. In ME. the northern dialect had hande-werk, as if f. an inflected form of hand; perh. after ON. handa-verk. When the e became mute in 14th c., this also sank into hand-werk.]
† 1. A thing or quantity of things wrought or made by the hands; = handiwork 1. Obs.
| a 1000 Riddles xxi. 7 Sinc hondweorc smiþa. a 1300 E.E. Psalter cxxxvii[i]. 8 Þi hend-werke ne forsake for-þi. c 1325 Metr. Hom. 71 This Makary Come unto the cyte..To sell thar hys handwerke. a 1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 3340 His handwerk and his creature. 1594 Kyd Cornelia in Dodsley O. Pl. (1780) II. 253 Thou heaven's hand-work Fair Illium. 1895 Morris Beowulf 16 The best of all war-shrouds, The hand-work of Weland. |
| β c 1200 Ormin 5054 Mann iss Godess handewerrc. a 1300 Cursor M. 1155 (Cott.) Mi handewark als egges me. c 1340 Ibid. 20222 (Fairf.) Kepe þi hande werk fra shame. c 1470 Henry Wallace ii. 186 Quhi will thow giff thi handewark for nocht? |
2. Work done with the hands; working with the hands; manual operation or labour; now
esp. as distinguished from work done by or with machinery.
| ? a 1000 Eccles. Inst. 3 in Thorpe Laws II. 404 (Bosw.) Þurh ðæt handweorc. c 1400 Rom. Rose 6683 Of his hond⁓werk wolde he gete Clothes to wryne hym. 1552 Latimer Serm. & Rem. (1845) 41 They think they get their livings with their own handwork. 1570 Dee Math. Pref. 39 The Architect..directeth the Mechanicien, to handworke. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 531 One brasen image he had of Mentors hand-worke. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Wealth Wks. (Bohn) II. 74 The incessant repetition of the same hand-work dwarfs the man. 1874 J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Churches 261 We hear a great deal about ‘handwork’; everything must be handwork. 1897 The Chiswick Press 4 The reputation for Handwork which they have acquired. |