Définition

• Earnest money on a contract; a corruption of "hand sale." See Earnest.

  "Anciently, among all the Northern nations, shaking of hands was held necessary to bind the bargain; a custom which we still retain in many verbal contracts. A sale thus made was called a hand sale, venditio per mutuam manuum complexionem; till in process of time the same word was used to signify the price, or earnest, which was given immediately after the shaking of hands, or instead thereof." Blackstone, Commentaries (ii. 30).

La source

• Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)

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