An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/hantieren
hantieren, vb., from the equiv. late MidHG. hantieren, ‘to trade, sell’; not a derivative of Hand, meaning ‘to handle,’ because in that case we should expect nd for nt in MidHG. and ModHG., but from Fr. hanter, ‘to haunt, frequent,’ which found its way from MidDu. into the ModTeut. dialects. It is curious to observe in how many ways obscure words have been corrupted in G. Comp. the earlier spelling handthieren.