behove means to befit, to suit. It carries an Arena rating of 1442, earned across 17 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, behove ranks #3,068 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #4,209 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #4,450 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #6,129 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
behove is pronounced /bɪˈhəʊv/.
Why “behove” is a great word
To be necessary, proper, or advantageous for someone; to be incumbent upon. From Middle English behoven, bihoven, from Old English behōfian ("to need, be necessary"), from Proto-Germanic *bihōfōną ("to benefit, behove, need"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- ("to grab, seize"). Unlike "befit," which suggests mere suitability of manner, or "require," which denotes a mandatory command, to behove carries the quiet weight of a moral or logical advisability. It is the unspoken duty that behoves a child to care for an aging parent, the fading light that behoves a traveler to seek shelter, the entrusted secret that behoves a friend's silent loyalty—a quiet, internal compass pointing toward the gravity of correct conduct in a world of optional courtesies.
Etymology
From Middle English behoven, bihoven (“to be necessary, requisite; to be compelled or required (to do something)”), from Old English behōfian (“to need; to be necessary”), from Proto-Germanic *bihōfōną (“to benefit, behove, need”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to grab, seize”). The word is cognate with Old Frisian bihōvia (“to need”), Middle Low German behôven (“to need”) and Old Saxon *bihōvōn, Dutch behoeven (“to need”), obsolete German behufen (cf. Behuf), Danish behøve (“to need”), Norwegian behøve (“to need”), Swedish behöva (“to have use for, to need”).
verb
- To befit, to suit.
- To be necessary for (someone).
- To be in the best interest of; to benefit.
- To be needful, meet or becoming.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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