different between behold vs recognize

English

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-West Germanic *bihaldan? (“to hold with, keep”), equivalent to be- +? hold. Cognate with Saterland Frisian behoolde (“to keep”), 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): /b??h??ld/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /b??ho?ld/

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 look at, esp. appreciatively; to descry, look upon.
   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 532:

     […] Alaeddin ate and drank and was cheered and after he had rested and had recovered spirits he cried, "Ah, O my mother, I have a sore grievance against thee for leaving me to that accursed wight who strave to compass my destruction and designed to take my life. Know that I beheld Death with mine own eyes at the hand of this damned wretch, whom thou didst certify to be my uncle; […]
2. (intransitive) To look.
3. (transitive) To contemplate.

Usage notes

Rarely used in informal speech. The past participle beholden now has a meaning detached from the other forms of the word.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:look

Derived terms

• beholder
  • eye of the beholder

Translations

Interjection

behold

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

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:lo

Translations

References

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

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [b?e?h?l?]

Etymology 1

From Middle Low German beholt, behalt, from the verb beholden; see also Danish beholde.

Noun

behold c (uninflected)

1. (archaic) haven, refuge

   in the phrases i behold (“intact”) and i god behold (“safe”)

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

behold

1. imperative of beholde

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

behold

1. imperative of beholde

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???k??na?z/, (sometimes proscribed) /???k?na?z/

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old French reconoistre, from Latin recognoscere, first attested in the 16th century. Displaced native English acknow (“to recognize, perceive as”), compare German erkennen and Swedish erkänna.

Alternative forms

• recognise (non-Oxford British spelling)

Verb

recognize (third-person singular simple present recognizes, present participle recognizing, simple past and past participle recognized) (North American and Oxford British spelling)

1. (transitive) To match (something or someone which one currently perceives) to a memory of some previous encounter with the same person or thing.
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,

     He looked in vain into the stalls for the butcher who had sold fresh meat twice a week, on market days, and he felt a genuine thrill of pleasure when he recognized the red bandana turban of old Aunt Lyddy, the ancient negro woman who had sold him gingerbread and fried fish, and told him weird tales of witchcraft and conjuration, in the old days when, as an idle boy, he had loafed about the market-house.

2. (transitive) To acknowledge the existence or legality of; to treat as valid or worthy of consideration.

3. (transitive, or with clause) To acknowledge or consider (as being a certain thing or having a certain quality or property).

4. (transitive) To realize or discover the nature of something; apprehend quality in.
5. (transitive) To show formal appreciation of, as with an award, commendation etc.

6. (obsolete) To review; to examine again.
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of South to this entry?)
7. (obsolete) To reconnoiter.
   • 1637, Robert Monro, Monro, His Expedition With the Worthy Scots Regiment Called Mac-Keys

     before the siege was layd to the Towne, of minde to recognize, he fell unawares amongst an Ambushcade

8. (immunology) To have the property to bind to specific antigens.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From re- +? cognize.

Alternative forms

• re-cognize

Verb

recognize (third-person singular simple present recognizes, present participle recognizing, simple past and past participle recognized) (North American and Oxford British spelling)

1. to cognize again