A timeless noun emanating from Middle English ȝespen and first used in around 1325, meaning a unit of measurement being the amount of that can be held in two hands cupped together. The shape made, like a bowl, is a gowpen, coming from the Old Norse gaupn (hollow made by cupped hands) and a goppenful, which in slang terms could be heard as a gob- or mouthful. Another alternative for the double-handful yepsen includes yepsintle.
Dialect English variants on the word include eapns (Yorkshire), espin (Derbyshire), ipson (Somerset), yaspen (Northern England), yeepsen (Essex), yepsintle (Lancashire), yespen (Essex), yespfull (Staffordshire), and yestmus (Lancashire).
Is But what of yepsen’s in song? It’s not easy to find, but here’s a handful of handful songs, starting with Neil Young:
Love is a rose but you better not pick it
It only grows when it's on the vine
A handful of thorns and you'll know you've missed it
You lose your love when you say the word mine
And Nat King Cole, with the more metaphorical: A Handful of Stars:
But from the stars back down to earth, and perhaps echoing the title of a novel by Evelyn Waugh, A Handful of Dust by country star Linda Loveless:
But appropriately enough, let’s end this short selection with a song co-written by Lionel Bart (who wrote the musical Oliver!), Mike Pratt, with a cheerful, whistling ditty that was the first release by a bequiffed Tommy Steele and The Steelmen in May 1957:
Want to add further examples of yepsen-themed songs to fill your hands? Feel free to share anything more in relation to anything whether in music or wider culture, such as from film, art, or other contexts, in comments below.
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