handicraft

UK/ˈhændɪkɹæft/US/ˈhændɪkɹæft/

nounB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #15,058 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: handicrafts

Handicraft is skilled work made by hand rather than machine. Sell your handicraft.

It survives where the hand can do what a machine cannot, or where the buyer wants the difference. Handicraft is one of the oldest words in English, recorded before the Norman Conquest.

Definitions of handicraft

1nounhandicraftSkilled work made by hand rather than machine.B2+
“The handicraft stall took more than the bakery.”

handicraft is work.

Where it comes from

Old English handcraeft, hand plus craft, later reshaped under the influence of handiwork.

Old English
handcræft
English, today
handicraft

From handiwork. For handcraft, influenced by handiwork; Old English handcræft. by surface analysis, handy + -craft.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

handicraft in the wild

Formerly, the term meant any member of the handicraft trades, but by the early 20th century, it had come to mean one who works with machinery.
Mechanic
Persian embroidery is a type of Persian art and handicraft.
Persian embroidery
The school continued the local handicraft of icon painting known since the 16th century, but after the Russian Revolution the icon painting workshops were closed.
Kholuy miniature
Like folk art, handicraft output often has cultural, political, and/or religious significance.
List of folk festivals
As at folk festivals, such art and handicraft may also appear at historical reenactments and events such as Renaissance fairs.
List of folk festivals

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

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