behight

English

Alternative forms

• behote (13th-16th centuries)

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”).

Verb

behight (third-person singular simple present behights, present participle behighting, simple past and past participle behight or behighted)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To vow, promise (someone).
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book II:

     Thenne I behote yow sayd Balyn parte of his blood to hele youre sone with alle.

2. (dialectal, Northern England) 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.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 50:

     The keys are to thy hand behight.

4. (obsolete) To mean, or intend.
   • 1559, unknown author, Mirror for Magistrates:

     More than heart behighteth.

5. (obsolete) To consider or esteem to be; to declare to be.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 31:

     But nathelesse whilst all the lookers on / Him dead behight, as he to all appeard, / All vnawares he started vp anon,

6. (obsolete) To call; to name; to address.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 25:

     Whom […] he knew and thus behight.

7. (obsolete) To command; to order.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 17:

     And his well proued weapons to him hent; / So taking courteous conge he behight, / Those gates to be vnbar'd, and forth he went.

Noun

behight (plural behights)

1. (obsolete) A vow; a promise.