Etymology Dictionary

HANDICAP,  a race for horses of all ages.  (E.)   In a handicap, horses carry different weights according to their ages, &c., with a view to equalising their chances.   The word was formerly the name of a game.   'To the Miter Taverne in Woddstreete... Here some of us fell to handycappe, a sport that I never knew before;' Pepys' Diary, Sept. 18, 1660.   The game is thus explained in Dr. Brewer's Dict. of Phrase and Fable.   'A game at cards not unlike Loo, but with this difference; the winner of one trick has to put in a double stake, the winner of two tricks a triple stake, and so on.   Thus:  if six persons are playing, and the general stake is 1s., and A gains 3 tricks, he gains 6s., and has to "hand i’ the cap" or pool 3s.  [4s.?] for the next deal.   Suppose A gains two tricks and B one, then A gains 4s. and B 2s., and A has to stake 3s. and B 2s. for the next deal.'   But this game does not seem to have originated the phrase.   β. There was, I believe, a still older arrangement of the kind, described in Chambers' Etym. Dict., where it is explained as 'originally applied to a method of settling a bargain or exchange by arbitration, in which each of the parties exchanging put his hand into a cap while the terms of the award were being stated, the award being settled only if money was found in the hands of both when the arbiter called "Draw."'   γ. A curious description of settling a bargain by arbitration is given in P. Plowman, B. v. 327; shewing that it was a custom to barter articles, and to settle by arbitration which of the articles was more valuable, and how much (by way of 'amends') was to be given to the holder of the inferior one.   From this settlement of 'amends' arose the system known as handicapping.   The etymology is clearly from hand i’ cap (= hand in cap), probably rather from the drawing of lots than from the putting in of stakes into a pool.   See my Notes on P. Plowman.