behold

Etymology

From Middle English beholden, from Old English behealdan (“to hold, have, occupy, possess, guard, preserve, contain, belong, keep, observe, consider, behold, look at, gaze on, see, signify, avail, effect, take care, beware, be cautious, restrain, act, behave”), from Proto-Germanic *bihaldaną (“to hold with, keep”), equivalent to be- +‎ hold. Cognate with Dutch behouden (“to keep, restrain, preserve”), German behalten (“to keep, restrain, remember”), Danish and Norwegian beholde (“to keep”) and Swedish behålla (“to keep”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɪˈhəʊld/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /bɪˈhoʊld/

• Audio (US)

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Verb

behold (third-person singular simple present beholds, present participle beholding, simple past beheld, past participle beheld or (rare) beholden)

1. (transitive) To see, or to look at.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 8, in The Celebrity:

     The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again; […] . Now she had come to look upon the matter in its true proportions, and her anticipation of a possible chance of teaching him a lesson was a pleasure to behold.

Interjection

behold

1. look, a call of attention to something
2. lo!

References

• behold in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• behold in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /behɔl/, [b̥eˈhʌlˀ]

Etymology 1

From Middle Low German beholt, behalt.

Etymology 2

See beholde (“to keep”)

Verb

behold

1. imperative of beholde