Handler

How to spell handler

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce handler

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does handler mean?

1. nounA person who manages, controls, or works directly with an animal, person, or thing.
2. nounIn programming, a routine or function that responds to a particular event or condition.

Handler in a sentence

• The police dog and its handler searched the empty warehouse.

• The developer wrote an error handler to catch failed network requests.

• A baggage handler loaded the suitcases onto the plane.

• Each button needs a click handler before the form will submit.

Where does handler come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows directly from the native Old English noun 'hand', the same body-part word that has stayed remarkably stable across the Germanic languages. From 'hand' Old English formed the verb 'handlian', meaning literally 'to touch, feel, or deal with using the hands', where the '-le' ending carried a sense of repeated or familiar action. Over the centuries 'handle' broadened from physical touching to the figurative idea of managing or controlling something, so to 'handle' a situation came to mean to deal with it skilfully. The agent suffix '-er', also of Germanic origin and meaning 'one who does', was then attached to give 'handler', recorded from around the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries for a person who manages or controls something or someone. The spelling is refreshingly honest: it is simply 'handle' with the silent 'e' dropped before '-er', so the only real trap is remembering that the 'd' sits firmly between the 'n' and the 'l'.

How the word is built

• hand (the body part)
• -le (verb-forming suffix, originally a frequentative)
• -er (agent suffix: one who does)