Handy definition8/20/2023 ![]() The earliest use is only approximately 10 years earlier:ġ. B Vpon men and vpon catell, yee and vpon all handy laboure. handiwork n., handicraft n.ġ535 Bible (Coverdale) Hag. designating minor domestic repairs or maintenance, such as might be carried out by a handyman. Made or done with the hands involving manual labour or skill. It is a simple collocation of “to come in” and “handy”Īlthough it is not the earliest recorded written use, one assumes that the actual the earliest use was In his answer Daniel traces the early records of the whole phrase “to come in handy”. The woman hopes the eggs wil come handy to the young mistris out of her confinement. Hoping your oner wont be displeasd at my boldness and I send a little basket of eggs-good fresh eggs-and they were lade by the little black hen that's three yeer ould come Michaelmas eve the day that I send home your oner's shute- and the times are very hard intirely - intirely - plase It was once used similarly and as often to come in handy, but lately has become rarer.Īn October 1824 The London Magazine prints a letter from summer 1821: We can also find some slightly early uses of the similar to come handy. "What have we got here ? a pair of handcuffs ah ! these come in handy the bushranger won't want handcuffs any more, but they'll do for his mate." Come handy Second, in Tales of the Colonies, or, The Adventures of an Emigrant, Volume 2: LETTUCES in the seed bed may be thinned, and those taken out may be planted. The earliest verifiable examples I found in Google Books are both from 1843.įirst, in a "Weekly Journal of Gardening" column of The Gardener and Practical Florist:ĬELERY, as we always recommend in small gardens, should be planted out at various seasons, and if there be any left in the seed bed, another row will come in handy. To come in handy means something will be handy or useful in the near future, that it will become handy. Meaning "conveniently accessible" is from 1640s.
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