Onehanded

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Executing tasks or functions with the use of only one hand
2. Involving actions or operations that necessitate just a single hand for completion
3. Done by employing a single hand to complete an action or task

Etymology: The word has deep roots in English: it descends from Old English "ānhende", meaning "one-handed", a compound of "ān" (one) and "hende" (hand, or handed). Middle English later reshaped it into "on-handed" and "onehand", and the modern spelling settled in as a plain joining of "one" and "handed". Its relatives in German ("einhändig"), Swedish ("enhänt") and Icelandic ("einn-hönd") show the same pattern of a number joined to a word for hand, which suggests the formation was already common across the Germanic languages. The sense has stayed remarkably literal. Where many compounds drift into figurative use, this one still describes a physical action carried out with only one hand, such as a task that needs no second hand to finish. A 2002 travel account by Jill Fredston, describing a fisherman who had hailed the author from a wharf, shows the word used in exactly this everyday, concrete way.