What's the difference between 'single-hand' and 'single-handed'? And why? Is meaning of 'single-hand' a subset of 'single-handed'?
It is called the past participle.
- The closed-down restaurant.
- The red-haired woman.
- A white-tailed deer.
- The saber-toothed tiger.
- A painted door.
- An unpainted door.
- A painted bucket vs paint bucket.
- If you love hyphens, then, painted-bucket vs paint-bucket.
The hyphen is optional. Read When to use a hyphen to coin a new word and when to omit a hyphen?.
The past participle, because the state of the object is due to a completed action.
There is difference between "red-haired woman" and "red hair woman".
- "red-haired woman" = a woman haired with red hair.
- "red hair woman" could mean a woman selling/throwing/giving/etc red hair, or a "red-haired woman".
Hyphens are for clarity:
Red hair woman = red-hair woman.
- Single hand: He won the game with a single hand. It was a single-hand game.
- I have only a single hand tonight. All other waiters, except she, have gone home for the New Year.
- Single-handed: He single-handedly won the game with a single hand. It was a single-handed single-hand feat.
A hand is one cycle of a card game. A hand, can be used as the term for an employee or hired help.
sin·gle-hand·ed also sin·gle·han·ded (sĭng′gəl-hăn′dĭd)adj.
- Working or done without help; unassisted.
- Intended for use with one hand.
- Having or using only one hand.
- Nautical Of, being, or restricted to a one-person sailing crew.
- In a single-handed manner.
- sin′gle-hand′ed·ly adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.