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"Handicap" did not derive from begging.Ê It originally was the name of an English game of chance during which players thrust their hands into a cap. Later it came to refer to assessing the relative merits of racehorses; then it came to mean weight added to equalize horseracing competition; after that it also meant an impediment to success.Ê Finally handicap became a synonym for disability.Ê The Oxford English Dictionary provides a history of the word.
Paul K. Longmore, Ph.D.