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behight en · NOUN

Etymology

From Middle English beheten, bihaten, behoten (preterite behighte), from Old English behātan (“to promise, vow, pledge oneself, threaten”) (preterite behēhte), corresponding to be- + hight. Cognate with Scots beheit, behecht (“to promise, vow”), Middle High German beheizen (“to promise”).

Meanings

1. (obsolete) A vow; a promise.

Forms

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
behights	Number=Plur		lexicographic
behote		alternative	lexicographic

behight en · VERB

Etymology

From Middle English beheten, bihaten, behoten (preterite behighte), from Old English behātan (“to promise, vow, pledge oneself, threaten”) (preterite behēhte), corresponding to be- + hight. Cognate with Scots beheit, behecht (“to promise, vow”), Middle High German beheizen (“to promise”).

Meanings

1. (obsolete, transitive) To vow, promise (someone).
   • Thenne I behote yow sayd Balyn parte of his blood to hele youre sone with alle. 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book II:
2. (Northern-England, dialectal) To be designated.
   • Wheea behight thee? = What is your name/to whom do you belong?
3. (obsolete, transitive) To give in trust; to commit; to entrust.
   • The keys are to thy hand behight. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 50:
4. (obsolete) To mean, or intend.
   • More than heart behighteth. 1559, unknown author, Mirror for Magistrates:
5. (obsolete) To consider or esteem to be; to declare to be.
   • But nathelesse whilst all the lookers on / Him dead behight, as he to all appeard, / All vnawares he started vp anon, 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 31:
6. (obsolete) To call; to name; to address.
   • Whom […] he knew and thus behight. 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25:
7. (obsolete) To command; to order.
   • And his well proued weapons to him hent; / So taking courteous conge he behight, / Those gates to be vnbar'd, and forth he went. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 17:

Forms

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
behighting	Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part		lexicographic
behighted	Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part		lexicographic
behighted	Tense=Past		lexicographic
behote		alternative	lexicographic
behights	Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres		lexicographic
behight	Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part		lexicographic
behight	Tense=Past		lexicographic