Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Handkerchief |
HandkerchiefNoun1. A square piece of cloth used for wiping the eyes or nose or as a costume accessory. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "handkerchief" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1588. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Satire | HANDKERCHIEF, n. A small square of silk or linen, used in various ignoble offices about the face and especially serviceable at funerals to conceal the lack of tears. The handkerchief is of recent invention; our ancestors knew nothing of it and intrusted its duties to the sleeve. Shakespeare's introducing it into the play of "Othello" is an anachronism: Desdemona dried her nose with her skirt, as Dr. Mary Walker and other reformers have done with their coattails in our own day -- an evidence that revolutions sometimes go backward. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Bible | Handkerchief Only once in Authorized Version (Acts 19:12). The Greek word (sudarion) so rendered means properly "a sweat-cloth." It is rendered "napkin" in John 11:44; 20:7; Luke 19:20. Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Handkerchief."
Synonyms: HandkerchiefSynonyms: hankey (n), hankie (n), hanky (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Cleanness | Napkin, cloth, maukin, malkin, handkerchief, towel, sudary; doyley, doily, duster, sponge, mop, swab. |
Clothing | Pocket handkerchief, hanky, hankie. |
Neckerchief, neckcloth; tie, ruff, collar, cravat, stock, handkerchief, scarf; bib, tucker; boa; cummerbund, rumal, rabat. | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Handkerchief |
| English words defined with "handkerchief": bandana, bandanna ♦ Fazzolet ♦ Handcloth, Handkercher, Hemstitched ♦ Kleenex ♦ Mokadour, Mouchoir, Muckender ♦ pocket-handkerchief, Pullicate ♦ rolled, rolled-up ♦ Sudarium, Sudary. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "handkerchief": Fakir', FLASH, FOGLE ♦ Handkerchief and Sword, HANDKERCHIEF FOLDER, handkerchief ironer, Handkerchiefs, HOOD-WINKED ♦ INDIA WIPE ♦ MUCKINDER, Myron ♦ Pocket-handkerchief, PRESSER, HANDKERCHIEF ♦ Relics, RUM CLOUT ♦ SAMPLE CLERK, HANDKERCHIEF, Smec ♦ TO KNUCKLE ONE'S WIPE ♦ WIPE, WIPER. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "handkerchief": gorgeous ♦ Handkercher ♦ mandil, Mokadour ♦ Sudarium. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Here, take my handkerchief. Never in any crisis of your life have I known you to have a handkerchief. (Gone with the Wind; writing credit: Margaret Mitchell; Sidney Howard) Rose, I found my lucky handkerchief. (The Golden Girls; writing credit: Philip Broadley; Gabriel Castro) And I was left only to pick up an abandoned handkerchief and savor the perfumed shadows of these womenthese southern women. (Designing Women; writing credit: Poul Thomsen) Well, one of us smells like a tart's handkerchief. (Diamonds Are Forever; writing credit: Richard Maibaum) | |
Lyrics | It ain't no joke when mamma's handkerchief is soaked ("WALKIN' ON THE SUN"; performing artist: Smash Mouth) | |
Clever | A wife is a person who can look in the top drawer of a dresser and find a man's handkerchief that isn't there. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Bloody Handkerchief (1969) The Yellow Handkerchief (1923) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Sylvie and Bruno | Carroll, Lewis | He took off his spectacles, and rubbed them with his handkerchief. |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | A handkerchief carefully knotted kept them from falling. |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | Whereupon I again thrust up my stick and handkerchief, calling for help till I was almost hoarse. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Apply pressure until the bleeding stops-a clean towel, handkerchief, or cloth firmly applied to the wound will slow or stop the bleeding. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Handkerchief" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Handkerchief" is used about 705 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 705 | 9,492 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "handkerchief": neck handkerchief ♦ paper handkerchief ♦ pocket handkerchief ♦ scented handkerchief. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "handkerchief": handkerchief-before, handkerchief-size. | |
Ending with "handkerchief": pocket-handkerchief, snuff-handkerchief. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
handkerchief | 216 |
wedding handkerchief | 67 |
embroidered handkerchief | 33 |
man handkerchief | 21 |
fold handkerchief | 20 |
lady handkerchief | 18 |
linen handkerchief | 18 |
handkerchief yellow | 16 |
bridal handkerchief | 14 |
monogrammed handkerchief | 14 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "handkerchief"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | shami hundësh (hankie, hanky, kerchief, nose rag, pullicate, snot-rag), shami (Babushka, Belcher, wrap). (various references) | |
Arabic | منديل (hanky, headgear, kerchief, neckerchief, wipe, wiper), محرمة (hanky), وشاح للعنق, غطاء لرأس المرأة. (various references) | |
Basque | sudurzapi. (various references) | |
Blackfoot | iihtáíso'pioohso'p. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | кърпа за глава, носна кърпа (hankie, kerchief, napkin, nose rag, snot-rag, wipe), малко шалче. (various references) | |
Chamorro | pañu. (various references) | |
Chinese | 手帕 . (various references) | |
Czech | kapesník (hankie, hanky, kerchief). (various references) | |
Danish | lommetørklæde. (various references) | |
Dutch | zakdoek. (various references) | |
Esperanto | naztuko. (various references) | |
Faeroese | lummaturriklæði, lummaklútur. (various references) | |
Farsi | دستمال گردن (Shawl, Tie), دستمال (Kerchief, Napkin). (various references) | |
Finnish | nenäliina. (various references) | |
French | mouchoir (hanky). (various references) | |
Frisian | bûsdoek. (various references) | |
German | taschentuch (bandanna, hankie, hanky), schnupftuch (hanky). (various references) | |
Greek | μαντήλι (scarf), μαντίλι (hanky). (various references) | |
Hebrew | ממחט", מטפחת אף (hanky). (various references) | |
Hungarian | zsebkendő (hanky). (various references) | |
Indonesian | sapu tangan (kerchief). (various references) | |
Italian | fazzoletto (hankie, hanky). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 鼻拭き , ハロゲン電球 (furlong, handsome, hang, hang glider, hang ten, hangar, hanger, hanger display, hanger plant, hanging plant, hangul, Harrop, Hawaii, Hawaiian guitar, Hungary, hunger, hunger strike, hunger-strike, hungry, hungry market, hung-up, tungsten halogen lamp). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ハンカチ , はなふき. (various references) | |
Korean | 손수건. (various references) | |
Manx | bussal (kerchief, pocket handkerchief). (various references) | |
Norwegian | lommetørkle. (various references) | |
Occitan | mocador. (various references) | |
Papago | towash. (various references) | |
Papiamen | lensu. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | andkerchiefhay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | lenço (Belcher, kerchief, rag, scarf, wiper). (various references) | |
Romanian | fular (comforter, muffler, neckcloth, neckerchief), batistã (bandana, hanky, kerchief, nose rag, wipe), basma (comforter, headkerchief, kerchief, neckerchief, shawl, wrap). (various references) | |
Romansch | faziel. (various references) | |
Romany | dikhlò. (various references) | |
Russian | шейный платок (cravat, neckcloth, neckerchief), носовой платок (hankie, hanky, nose rag, noserag, snot-rag, wipe, wiper). (various references) | |
Sepedi | sakatuku. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | maramica (bandanna, hanky, lachrymatory, napkin, tunica). (various references) | |
Spanish | pañuelo (bandana, bandanna, fichu, hanky, kerchief, neckerchief, neckpiece, nose rag, scarf, Square). (various references) | |
Swazi | lí-dúku. (various references) | |
Swedish | näsduk (hankie, hanky). (various references) | |
Turkish | mendil (hankie, hanky, noserag, rag). (various references) | |
Turkmen | elяaglyk. (various references) | |
Ukranian | хусточка, косинка (kerchief, neckerchief, neckpiece), носовик. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | khăn tay (nose-wiper, pocket-handkerchief). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | sudaria, sudario, sudarium. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "handkerchief": handkerchiefs. (additional references) | |
| |
"Handkerchief" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: handkercheif, handkerchicf, hankerchief. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "handkerchief" (pronounced ha"ngkerkhuf or ha"ngkerkhēf) |
| 3 | -kh u f | kerchief, mischief. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-d-e-e-f-h-h-i-k-n-r" | |
-3 letters: archfiend, friedcake. | |
-4 letters: cankered, dakerhen, defiance, echidnae, enriched, freehand, frenched, hankered, harkened, inarched, kerchief, nickered, richened. | |
-5 letters: archine, cairned, chained, chaired, charked, chiefer, chinked, chirked, cranked, creaked, deciare, defacer, definer, echidna, endarch, enfaced, faciend, faience, fancied, fancier, fiancee, franked, freaked, handier, headier, hearken, herniae, inhered, kneader, nakeder, ranched, reached, recaned, redneck, refaced, refined, reinked. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-d-e-e-f-h-h-i-k-n-r" | |
+1 letter: handkerchiefs. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)48 61 6E 64 6B 65 72 63 68 69 65 66 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).... .- -. -.. -.- . .-. -.-. .... .. . ..-. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001000 01100001 01101110 01100100 01101011 01100101 01110010 01100011 01101000 01101001 01100101 01100110 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)H a n d k e r c h i e f |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0048 0061 006E 0064 006B 0065 0072 0063 0068 0069 0065 0066 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)426780707771846974757172 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Orthography 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
