handicraft

For handcraft, influenced by handiwork; Old English handcræft.

• IPA^(key): /ˈhændɪkɹæft/, /ˈhændɪkɹɑːft/

• Audio (Southern England)

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handicraft (countable and uncountable, plural handicrafts)

1. A trade requiring skill of hand; manual occupation; handcraft.
   • 1712 April 26 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “TUESDAY, April 15, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 354; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:

     I regard the Grand Seignior , who is obliged , by an express command in the Alcoran , to learn and practise some handicraft trade

     The spelling has been modernized.

2. An artifact produced by handicraft.
3. (rare, obsolete) A man who earns his living by handicraft; a handicraftsman.
   • 1596, Thomas Nashe, The Unfortunate Traueller: or, The Life of Jacke Wilton:

     his men were all baſe handie craftes, as coblers, and curriers, and tinkers, whereof ſome had barres of yron […]

   • 1672, John Dryden, The Assignation, or Love in a Nunnery:

     the Handicrafts-Shops begin to open

   • 1691, Sam Norris, The English Spy; Or, the Intrigues, Pollicies, and Stratagems of the French King with His Secret Contrivances, for Undermining the Princes of Christendom, Discovered:

     The M[e]chanicks, and handy-crafts were Induſtrious, Thrifty, and the main ſupporters of the Trade of France.

   • 1828 (reprinted 1842), Sir Walter Scott, The Fair Maid of Perth‎, Schlesinger:

     "Why, thou knowest, father," he said, smiling, "that we handicrafts best love the folks we live by; […]

• handcraft

• handicrafted
• handicrafting