behold

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English biholden,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English behealdan, Anglian bihaldan,^[5][4][6][7] formed from be- and healdan (“to hold”), the source of hold.^[5][2][8][9] The Oxford Dictionary of English takes the prefix in the sense "thoroughly".^[10] It is a common West Germanic compound:^[6] Old Saxon bihaldan (“to hold, keep”), Old Frisian bihalda (“to hold, possess, keep”), Old High German bihaltan, German behalten (“to keep”) and Dutch behouden (“to keep, preserve”).^{[5][4][6][11]} Only English applied the word to looking; in the related languages it means keeping or maintaining.^{[5][8][12][10]}

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English the verb meant to hold or keep, to belong to, to have regard to, and to hold in view or watch:^[5][6] Barnhart dates bihaldan to before 830, in the Vespasian Psalter,^[13] and the OED quotes the Blickling Homilies for the sense of looking at.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The senses of holding, keeping and belonging died out between Middle English and the early 16th century,^[5][7] and the meaning "to signify" is recorded only in the Ormulum and its time.^[5] Looking, which the OED derives from the sense of holding in view, became the main meaning.^[5] From the 12th century the verb also meant simply to see.^[5] The older sense of being held by obligation survives only in the past participle beholden, "indebted", first recorded in Middle English.^[5][4][12] The imperative was used from 1535, in Coverdale's Bible, as an interjection to call attention, like lo;^[5][14] Johnson (1755) listed it as an interjection with that meaning.^[14] In Scots the verb could mean to watch with suspicion, and in West Somerset dialect to experience.^[15] The verb is now literary or archaic.^[11][7]

Timeline

• before 830 – bihaldan, to hold in view, watch.^[13]
• Old English–1525 – to hold, keep (obsolete).^[5]
• c1175 – to see.^[5]
• c1175–1225 – to signify (obsolete).^[5]
• 1535 – interjection, behold!^[5]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. (literary, archaic) To look at or see, especially something remarkable: The cathedral at dawn was a sight to behold.
2. (literary) To perceive or observe; to view in the mind.

Interjection

1. (archaic) Used to call attention to something; lo.

Word family

• beholder
• beholdable
• unbeheld
• lo and behold

Related words

• hold
• beholden

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)