English
Handlanger
Handlanger comes from German Handlanger ‘handyman’.
- Germanc. 1650–presentHandlanger‘handyman’
- Englishearliest quotation 1746same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Germanc. 1650–presentHandlanger‘handyman’
- Englishearliest quotation 1746same form
Earliest quotation: 1746, Jovis, 22° die Januarii; Anno 20° Georgii II Regis, 1746: “Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, by His Majeſty's Command,…”
A compound of Hand ‘hand’ + langen ‘to hand over, to give’
Proto-Germanic *handuz ‘hand’
Proto-West Germanic *handu ‘hand’
Old High German hant ‘hand’
Middle High German hant ‘hand’
German Hand ‘hand’
Proto-Germanic *langōną ‘to desire’
Proto-West Germanic *langōn
Old High German langēn
Middle High German langen
German langen ‘to hand over, to give’
The story
Borrowed from German Handlanger (‘handyman; henchman’), from Hand (‘hand’) + langen (‘to hand over, to give; to reach for something’) + -er (in the sense of someone who puts things into another person's hands, that is, someone whose task it is to help another person succeed). The word was loaned into Dutch and might have entered English through the Dutch form.
Every English word from German Handlanger
Today it means
noun A low-ranking artillery soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Army.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / German Handlanger / Handlanger