Invention

Handshake (in business)

A ninth-century BCE stone relief shows two kings sealing an alliance palm to palm.

Ancient Assyria · 9th century BCE

One of the earliest known depictions of a handshake is a ninth-century BCE Assyrian relief showing King Shalmaneser III clasping the hand of the Babylonian king Marduk-zakir-shumi I to formalize an alliance.1 The gesture was already ancient by then. Historians believe the handshake may have originated as a demonstration of peaceful intent, showing that the extended hand held no weapon.

In ancient Greece, the gesture was called dexiosis, from the word for the right hand. It appears on funerary steles from the fifth century BCE, on temple friezes, and in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, where it accompanies pledges and displays of trust.2

Roman coins depicted pairs of clasped hands alongside the name of the goddess Concordia, linking the gesture to harmony between political factions. In medieval markets, a handshake between traders served as a public acknowledgment that a bargain had been concluded.3

The handshake became an everyday greeting relatively recently. Historians credit seventeenth-century Quakers with popularizing it as a more democratic alternative to bowing, curtsying, or doffing a hat. The Quakers extended the handshake to everyone regardless of social rank, rejecting the hierarchy embedded in older forms of greeting.4

2,800

Approximate age in years of the earliest known depiction of a handshake.

By the nineteenth century, etiquette manuals devoted entire sections to proper handshaking technique. An 1877 guide warned that a gentleman who rudely pressed the offered hand ought never to have the opportunity to repeat the offense. Research by Juliana Schroeder at the University of California, Berkeley, later found that negotiators who shook hands at the start of a session were more willing to cooperate and more likely to reach agreement.5

In some legal traditions, a handshake agreement held the same binding force as a written contract. Colonial American courts recognized handshakes as sealing enforceable obligations. A 1683 case in the records of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania ordered two men to shake hands to resolve a dispute, treating the gesture as both reconciliation and contractual commitment.6

Timeline

9th century BCE

An Assyrian relief depicts King Shalmaneser III clasping hands with a Babylonian king.

5th century BCE

Greek funerary art and Homer's epics feature the handshake as a gesture of trust and pledge.

17th century

Quakers popularize the handshake as a democratic alternative to bowing and hat-doffing.

1877

Etiquette manuals devote sections to proper handshaking technique.

Endnotes

1 Evan Andrews, "What Is the Origin of the Handshake?" HISTORY.com (2020).

2 Glenys Davies, analysis of the handshake motif in classical art; Andrews, HISTORY.com.

3 Andrews, HISTORY.com.

4 Michael Zuckerman, cited in National Geographic, "Why Do We Touch Others So Much?" (2020).

5 Juliana Schroeder, research on handshake effects in negotiation, UC Berkeley.

6 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, "Shaking Hands: An Ancient & Early American Custom."