behove (or behoove)
verb
Etymology: from Old English behofian (= to need), derived of behof (= behoof). Literally: ‘to be of behoof or use.’
Third-person singular simple present: she/he behoves (behooves)
Indicative past, past participle: behoved (behooved)
Present participle: behoving (behooving)
Transitively:
First definition - Obsolete acceptation: to be in want of; to have need of (something)
Second definition: (the subject being a clause; and the object, a person or other animal) to be on behoof of (some one); to be for the behoof of; to be advantageous, or profitable for (some one). Hence, to be necessary or advisable, as being profitable
Postdefinition: the impersonal pronoun it is used as a anticipatory subject of the clause, and pursuantly to this practice, the construction becomes quasi-impersonal
It may be approximately translated by il faut (faire quelque chose), car il est profitable, in French; yo tengo (tú tienes, ella tiene, etc.) que hacer cierta cosa, porque es provechosa, in Spanish; io ho (tu hai, etc.) da fare (qualcosa), per essere utile, in Italian.
Synthetic antonym: it is shunnable (to do)
In places the slope was almost precipitous, and it behooved him to be careful of the horses, which could not be replaced. Harold Bindloss (Winston of the Prairie)
[…] as Endicott glanced right and left along the front, he discovered a personage at some little distance with whom it behooved him to hold a parley. Nathaniel Hawthorne (from Twice Told Tales)
Our debts, I grant, are very great, and therefore it the more behoves you, as a young man of principle and honour, to pay them off as speedily as possible.
Charles Dickens (Barnaby Rudge)
[…] the herd is heading a little this-a-way, and it behoves us to make ready for their visit. J. Fenimore Cooper (The Prairie)
I tell thee, lady, it behooves me much to know this secret. William Gilmore Simms (Southward Ho)
[…] the harshness, and selfishness of my nature, my vanity, […] my pride and ambition, were for a time concealed from him whom it most behooved to know them. Mary Martha Sherwood (The lady of the manor)
Since we are now approaching the gravest crisis in Shelley's life, it behoves us to be more than usually careful in considering his circumstances at this epoch. John Addington Symonds (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
It was a circumstance highly unusual in such a place and hour; and, in our situation, it behoved us to proceed with some timidity. Robert Louis Stevenson (The Master of Ballantrae)
[…] Sandy would not leave the horses till they were carefully rubbed down, blanketed, and fed, for he was entered for the four- horse race and it behoved him to do his best to win. Ralph Connor (Black Rock)
These may be deemed the chief principles of the art of painting, which it behoves the student indispensably to acquire not only the knowledge but likewise the practice of. Dictionary of the fine arts
***The subject may be a noun, but this construction is rare:
Nothing behooves a business or professional man, and especially a physician, more than discretion. Jeffrey D. Marshall (The inquest)
Believing that nothing behooves democracy more than debate, we propose construction of a museum of bioprospecting, intellectual property, and the public domain as a vehicle for agreement and disagreement over the legitimacy, merit, and correctness of governmental decisions on bioprospecting, intellectual property, and the public domain. Joseph Henry Vogel (The Museum of Bioprospecting…)
***The subject may be a clause introduced by the conjunction that:
[…] it behoveth us that we arm ourselves, and demand of the Infantes what they have done with our ladies. Robert Southey (Chronicle Of The Cid)
***The personal object may be omitted:
In those days arose Rodrigo of Bivar. who was a youth strong in arms and of good customs; and the people rejoiced in him, for he bestirred himself to protect the land from the Moors. Now it behoves that ye should know whence he came, and from what men he was descended, because we have to proceed with his history. Robert Southey (Chronicle Of The Cid)
It behoves that these stories be written in letters of liquid gold. Richard F. Burton (The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night)
As the security of the community depended on the security of the seigneur, it behoved that his residence should be made inexpugnable. Sabine Baring-Gould (Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe)
Third definition: (the subject is a person) to be in duty (to do something reputed as useful)
Postdefinition: used only in Scotland
So that I behooved to come by some clothes of my own, and in the meanwhile to walk by the porter’s side, and put my hand on his arm as though we were a pair of friends. Robert Louis Stevenson (Catriona)
Other English vocables derived from behoof: unbehoving, behoveful, behooveful, behoving
