Handy

How to spell handy

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce handy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does handy mean?

1. adjectiveConvenient to use, or close at hand and easily reached.
2. adjectiveSkilful at practical tasks, especially repairs done by hand.

Handy in a sentence

• Keep a torch handy in case the power fails.

• He is very handy around the house and fixes most things himself.

• A small notebook is handy for jotting down ideas during meetings.

• Being handy with tools saved them a fortune on tradespeople.

Where does handy come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grew directly out of the native English noun 'hand', which traces back to Old English 'hand' and the broader Germanic family that gave the same word to Dutch and German. The adjective form was made simply by adding the productive English suffix '-y', meaning roughly 'full of' or 'characterised by', the same suffix seen in 'dirty' or 'sleepy'. From at least the 1400s 'handy' carried the sense of something ready at hand, easy to reach, or close by, and by the 1600s it had also come to describe a person who is skilful with their hands. The two ideas, conveniently near and practically capable, both flow naturally from the literal image of something that fits the hand. Because it is built from plain Germanic stock with a transparent suffix, the spelling holds no real surprises beyond remembering the single 'd'.

How the word is built

• hand (the body part / by extension manual skill)
• -y (adjective suffix meaning 'characterised by')