handfastern.
/ˈhan(d)fɑːstə/, /ˈhan(d)fastə/, U.S. /ˈhæn(d)ˌfæstər/ Now chiefly historical.
A person who performs or presides over a marriage or handfasting ceremony (also figurative). Also: a person who has been betrothed in a handfasting ceremony.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > wedding or nuptials > people connected with wedding > [noun] > one who performs marriage ceremony
handfaster1538
marrier1830
1538 R. Taverner tr. Erasmus Sarcerius Common Places of Script. xlix. f. clxxxiiiiv She receyueth no dowry for the spousels of tholy ghost the handfaster but renneth a horing after straunge goddes.
1598 R. Grenewey tr. Tacitus Annales xi. ix. 151 That shee should heare the words of the Auspices, or hand-fasters.
1649 J. Bulwer Pathomyotomia Pref. sig. A10 Any Physiologicall Handfaster that can marry them stronger together, might doe it if he pleas'd.
1908 E. B. Simpson Folk Lore in Lowland Scotl. viii. 210 These peripatetic monks..carried a breviary and a rough register in their robes of approved and church-sanctioned handfasters.
1988 R. Skelton Pract. Witchcraft Today ii. ii. 91 In this ceremony, there is no handfaster or authority figure.
2002 Scotsman (Nexis) 21 Dec. 2 Today's handfasters are quite likely to also be seen doing community carol singing.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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