The Dallas Morning News prints a series on the origins of various sports words on Sundays.
Today, the explained that the word handicap came from an old barter system, where two people in ancient markets would swap items. An umpire/arbitrator would decide the difference in value of the two items and what the Owner of the lesser valued item in the trade, which would have to be made up of cash.
Apparently, both parties would put some forfeit money in a hat, and after the arbitrer announce how much money one had to pay to complete the swap, the two barterers would put their "hands in the cap" and either come out with a hand full of cash to signify they agreed, or empty handed to signify they didn't agree with umpire/arbitrers judgement.
Later, hand in cap, which had come to mean making up for a value short fall, morphed into a sports term "handicap" meaning an advantage given to someone with a shortfall of skill.
I doubt my family will find this interesting breakfast conversation, I guess, so I thought I would share this tidbit with you, non architecture related as it is.....