Handecraft

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Objects or articles created by manual skill and labor rather than by machine or factory methods
2. Items fashioned through skillful hand techniques, typically involving traditional or artistic methods of making
3. Products made by a person's hands using tools and craft, emphasizing individual artistry and technique

Etymology: "Handecraft" is a misspelling of "handicraft," so I've written about that word. Its second half, "craft," once meant strength and power in Old English, as in the German "Kraft." The sense of skill or cunning came later, and "crafty" still keeps that older shade of meaning. The compound is old. Old English had "handcræft," meaning skill or manual cleverness, built from "hand" and "cræft." In Middle English the spelling changed to "handicraft," with the "i" probably influenced by the -y ending of words like "handy" and "handiwork." Over time, "handicraft" came to mean skilled work done with the hands, especially making useful or decorative objects, rather than any skill in general.