second hand
5
3.3
- noun
- /ˈsɛkənd hænd/
:
de segunda mano
- Now listen, I want you to call me if you hear anything you think that I should know, whether you hear it directly or second hand.
- second-hand account
- second-hand information
- rely on second hand
Yeah, that generation and what your father specifically witnessed from a second hand at least place the Holocaust and all of that.
- Yeah, that generation and what your father specifically witnessed from a second hand at least place the Holocaust and all of that.
Examples
-
And you are relying on second-hand patient reports of what their doctor said and thought.
Blog text (13) -
We know that, based on second-hand information, he was not impressed by H. P. Blavatsky (James, 1986: 96).
Academic text (1991) -
Also, everyone else is doing it and it's like they really want to experience this second hand through the phone.
-
You get to know everything second hand do you?
-
I had the testimony, at second hand of course, but coming from reliable people.
Fiction book (1995) -
Experience is always second-hand, planned and described for one's consumption by others in advance.
Blog text (15) -
Similarly, the twentieth-century novel gives a second-hand account, one taken as a composite from historical accounts.
Academic text (1992) -
Some participants referred to hearsay and second-hand experiences that shaped their beliefs about vaccinations.
Academic text (2014) -
What is imprudent is relying on second-hand interpretations and hearsay from secondary sources, not the law itself.
Blog text (26) -
The lawyer presented the evidence he received second hand from various witnesses.
Synonyms
24
8.2
To feel something through another person instead of feeling it yourself
16
4.0
Learned from someone else rather than from the original source
How Direct
Surface Forms
Morphology
2nd + hand
A learner who knows 'second' (another, following the first) and 'hand' (source/possession/agency) can partially infer that 'second hand' involves something coming via another person rather than directly. However, the specific idiomatic sense 'indirectly; not firsthand' (and the related sense 'used' for goods) is lexicalized and somewhat conventional, so the exact meaning is not fully predictable from the parts alone.
Etymology
The noun second hand meaning information from someone else comes from the image of a story passing from one person's hand to the next, so you hear it from the 'second' person's hand, not the original. That's why it means information received through another person, not 'first hand'.