ETYMOLOGY
Middle English, from Old English handhwīl,
from hand, hond (hand) + hwīl (while);
originally alluding to the short span of a handbreadth
EXAMPLE
“…Thou semste (quoth the spider) a costerde monger.
Conscience euery handwhile thou doste cry.
I muste (quoth the flie) se sum token stronger.
Ere I can suppose you of that mistery.
I call not for conscience more comonly.
Then you speake of it seelde, flie I tolde the erste.
Cause why: that conscience at laste ende shulde be perste…”
From: The Spider and the Flie
A Parable of the Spider and the Flie
By John Heywood, 1556
Lexicophilia 