But why "second-hand"?

It has nothing to do with the second hand of a clock. But it does have to do with gossip.

No, the clock has nothing to do with it, even if every second person claims it does. The confusion is understandable because the English term "second hand" can indeed mean both. It is still incorrect, however.

The second hand on a clock is named after a logic of calculation that stems from Latin. The hour was divided into small parts: the "pars minuta prima," the first reduced part—this became the minute. When it was divided again, it resulted in the "pars minuta secunda," the second reduced part, and this became the second. The hand bears the name of the unit of time, not that of an order of ownership. Two completely different words that happen to sound the same.

The expression "second-hand" simply describes the path of an item. The first hand is the source, the second hand is the next station, and if things get complicated, third and fourth hands are added. The same image exists in several languages: "de seconde main" in French, "tweedehands" in Dutch. Apparently, the hand as a symbol for passing something on is so obvious that people came up with it independently of one another.

Originally, it wasn't about objects at all, but about knowledge. Whoever learned something "at first hand" had heard it from the person involved themselves. Whoever had it "at second hand" only knew the retold version—with everything that happens along the way. Only later did the phrasing migrate from information to things, specifically at the moment when things began to change hands in large quantities.

The slight negative connotation has remained. With information, the second hand is a disadvantage because something gets lost along the way: a detail, a context, half the truth.

With a vinyl record, it is exactly the opposite. In that case, something is added along the way.

 

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