Etymologically
Log in

behold

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:50. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /bɪˈhəʊld/[1]
  • US: /bɪˈhoʊld/, /biˈhoʊld/[1]

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

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)