A purely Germanic word with no secure outside cognate — possibly from a root meaning 'to seize,' the source of 'handsome.'
The end part of the arm beyond the wrist, including the palm, fingers, and thumb.
From Old English 'hond, hand,' from Proto-Germanic *handuz, of uncertain PIE origin—possibly from *ǵʰend- ('to seize, to take') or from a pre-PIE substrate. The connection to *ǵʰend- is semantically appealing (the hand as 'the seizer') but phonologically debated, as the expected Germanic reflex would differ. If the PIE link holds, it connects to Greek 'khandánein' (to hold, to contain) and Latin 'prehendere' (to grasp, source of English 'comprehend'). The word is confined
'Handsome' originally meant 'easy to handle' or 'handy' — it had nothing to do with beauty. The shift to meaning 'good-looking' happened in the late sixteenth century, and for a time it was applied primarily to men, which is why 'handsome' still carries a masculine connotation that 'beautiful' does not.