Where does one-handed come from?

It is traced to Middle English.

one-handed

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: 4.42 in modern English

Syllables: one-hand-ed
IPA

Scrabble Score

Letters

Syllables

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Having only one hand.

adj

Performed using only one hand.

adj

Designed for use with one hand

adj

Designed for use with one hand

adj

That uses one hand.

adj

Involving the actions of only one person.

adj

Chiral, having an asymmetric structural orientation.

adv

Using only one hand; one-handedly.

Example Sentences

"And who said the one-handed guy couldn't be self-sufficient? Certainly not his physical therapist, Gus, who led him to believe he'd be as good as new with a spaceage prosthesis and a crapload of physical and occupational therapy."
"Note that we can represent any cyclic event with a one-handed clock."
"A one-handed save by Wojciech Szczesny prevented Darren Pratley giving Bolton an early lead and Arsenal looked short of ideas in a goalless first half."
"If either movement or speed around the court is a weakness, the one-handed backhand may be the best choice because of the extra reach."
"The hoplites were pezetæri, the sarissa-armed, and hypaspists, a more select body, aimed with one-handed pike, sword and shield."
"... Boys sexual content mostly consists of a series of violent and less than titillating homosexual assaults. Word of mouth among the one-handed' readership would not have been good."

Etymology

From Middle English on-handed, variant of Middle English on-hande, onehand, from Old English ānhende (“one-handed”). By surface analysis, one + handed. Compare German einhändig (“one-handed”), Swedish enhänt, en-handad (“one-handed”), Icelandic einn-hönd (“one-handed”).

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: on-handed, on-hande, ānhende

Usage

Humorous

Inflected Forms

onehanded (alternative)

Phrases

one-handedness

Synonyms

one-handed tourniquet