hantle - From Ulster to America
Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English
Author: Michael Montgomery
Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.
hantle n Usually a considerable amount or number. [perhaps modification of handful; oed hantle n ‘a (considerable) number or quantity; a good many, a good deal’ 1692→, Scottish and northern dialect; dost hantle n ‘a considerable quantity (of things), a large number (of persons)’ 16th century→; dare hantle n 1 ‘a handful; a small number’, 2 ‘a large number, a crowd’ chiefly southern Appalachians]
Ulst.:
1733 North Country Description 26 The Cheel we a hantle o’ Keys in his Hand cam, and tuke it intill the middle o’ the Kirk, and laid a Buke upon it.
1801 Bruce Poems 17 But I’ve a hantle mair to say, / Which I may tell anither day. Ibid. [Glossary 4] = a great deal.
1824 McHenry Insurgent Chief 118 He lets me besides hae a hantel o’ siller every week.
U.S.:
1928 Chapman Happy Mt 63 The inside of the schoolhouse was scarcely to be seen for the hantle of people.
1940 Berrey Sthn Mt Dialect 46 = a great many.
1995 Montgomery Coll = a handful; a great plenty.