English

Alternative forms

• second-handed

Adjective

secondhanded ‎(not comparable)

1. Secondhand.
   1. Previously owned or used.
      • 1949, Mattie Virginia Harris, Weddin' Trimmin's, page 58:

        The clerk studied them. "You could get secondhanded ones for half price," he told Aunt Julina kindly.

      • 1965, California Legislature Senate Fact Finding Committee on Business and Commerce, Report to the Legislature - Volumes 1-2, page 198:

        If the article to which the label or brand is to be attached is secondhanded, the brand or label shall consist of the following: "This mattress (or other article of bedding) is secondhanded and has been sterilized."

      • 1987, Walter Dumaux Edmonds, Rome Haul, ISBN 0815602138, page 170:

        "Secondhanded goods has chips," said the cobbler stoutly. "That is why they are secondhanded goods.

      • 2012, L.See, All Of Ya'll Aren't From The North, ISBN 1477152628:

        We wore hand-me-downs, hand-me-down again and spruced it up to look good. Didn't look secondhanded or nothing when we finished adding the touch to it.

   2. Dealing in used goods.
      • 1976, Eliot Wigginton, I wish I could give my son a wild raccoon, ISBN 0385113919, page 358:

        You know, they had these secondhanded stores. Dad went to get me a pair of knee pants, but they'd been here too long!

      • 1996, Elizabeth Kytle, Home on the Canal, ISBN 0801853281, page 257:

        There were furniture stores, but so many of the secondhanded stores carried furniture.

      • 2004, Elizabeth Kytle, Willie Mae, ISBN 0820323764, page 75:

        I had a nice little half-iron bed painted with some kind of golden bronze paint, and a white dresser and a white chair. Babe bought them at a secondhanded store.

   3. Indirect.
      • 1855, Horatio Gates Jameson, A Treatise on epidemic cholera, page 198:

        We "speak of the things that we have seen," and not as one who offers secondhanded reports.

      • 1961, Journal of Discourses - Volume 7, page 36:

        We believe that Peter, James, and John actually did see holy angels—did behold Meses and Elias, and see Jesus transfigured, upon secondhanded testimonies given on the subject.

      • 2008, Urantia Foundation, The Urantia Book, ISBN 0911560513, page 986:

        Religion thus enters upon a new phase, a stage wherein it gradually becomes secondhanded; always does a medicine man, a shaman, or a priest intervene between the religionist and the object of worship.

      • 2010, Chinazom B. C. Iwuaba, Shaped by Struggles, ISBN 1609579909, page 68:

        I worked strategically to keep myself posted with what I may term a "secondhanded" learning approach. My desperate hunger and thirst for educational nourishment from my pals was intensified.

2. Ersatz.
   • 1951, Student Publications, The School of Design NC State College - Volumes 1-2, page li:

     The common error in most architectural schools is that basic design is taught at an abstract level using contemporary artists as examples to go by. This secondhanded process usually produces little Mondrians, Bauers, Gabos, Moores or, if the faculty member has enough to offer, little duplications of himself.

   • 2014, Warren R. B. Dixon, The Copenhagen Interpretation, ISBN 1493161466:

     “A grand scale is impersonal, and my thing, as you call it, is real and right here, right now, not some secondhanded satisfaction lording it over the flies."

   • 2015, Lisle A. Rose, Prologue to Democracy: The Federalists in the South 1789--1800, ISBN 0813164273:

     Other Federalist essayists urged the citizens of North carolina to cultivate an attachment to the national government "as necessary to our general happiness and as the best security against oppression,” while portraying John Adams as the leading figure in the American impulse toward liberty in 1776 and Jefferson as “only a secondhanded varnished Deist."

Adverb

secondhanded ‎(not comparable)

1. Secondhand.
   1. In a used condition.
      • 1855, William P. Smith, A Naturalist's Chapter of Difficulties, page 25-26:

        Finding that I could not get an answer to my request from the trustees of the British Museum, I have come to the conclusion that these gentlemen did a great injustice in selling my collection at public auction, which was done for no other purpose than that of throwing my valuable specimens into the hands of some of their friends, in order to purchase it secondhanded from them.

      • 1957, United States Congress Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field, Hearings - Volume 6, page 9097:

        If I got it from Mr. Rauh, I would get it secondhanded, or if I got it from you I would get it secondhanded.

      • 2013, Emile Gaboriau, Other People's Money, ISBN 1470953846:

        In point of fact it was over fifteen, and even then she had bought it secondhanded, and almost unfit for use.

   2. Indirectly
      • 1905, John Piter Anderson, Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Opening of the First of the Seven Seals and the Constitution and Marriage Statutes of the Most Ancient Appagejans 650,000 Years Ago, page 589:

        What I have learned outside of what is written in this secret history regarding town and village government, we shall not here mention as it would be recorded from hearsay or secondhanded.

      • 2007 July-August, Will Rogers, “Ponderables”, in American Cowboy, volume 4, page 32:

        A man in the country does his own thinking. Get him into town and he will be thinking secondhanded.

      • 2011, James Curtis, Spencer Tracy, ISBN 1448106214:

        Frank told me that you seemed upset because of my wire to Leo Morrison which, I understand, reached you secondhanded.

2. In second place, repeating another.
   • 1901, American Society for Engineering Education, ‎Society for the Promotion of Engineering, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting - Volume 9, page 254:

     The well-springs of scientific truth are not so far exhausted that there is nothing left for the engineering teacher, in the way of research, but to work at it secondhanded, perhaps going no further than to corroborate the earlier work undertaken by manufacturers.

   • 1960, United States Congress Senate Committee on Commerce, Hearings, page 32:

     Of course, I think we go secondhanded into most of these conferences anyway, but in this case we would have a definite assurance we would be going in secondhanded.

   • 2012, Samuel Longfellow, Life Of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Volume 1, ISBN 3849626504:

     But I suppose I am giving you all this second-handed, as you have probably seen the substance of it in the papers.

Usage notes

When used as a synonym for secondhand, many consider the word "secondhand" more proper. The word "secondhanded" is often used more colloquially, or in a legal context.