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URL: https://www.etymonline.com/word/beholder

⇱ Beholder - Etymology, Origin & Meaning

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Origin and history of beholder

beholder(n.)

"one who looks upon or sees, a spectator," late 14c., agent noun from behold.

also from late 14c.

Entries linking to beholder

Old English bihaldan (West Saxon behealdan) "give regard to, hold in view," also "keep hold of; belong to," from be- + haldan, healdan (see hold (v.)). Related: Beheld; beholding. A common West Germanic compound, compare Old Saxon bihaldan "hold, keep," Old Frisian bihalda "hold, possess, keep, protect, save," Old High German bihaltan, German behalten, but "[t]he application to watching, looking, is confined to English" [OED]. Related: Beholding.

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Meaning "impression produced on the beholder" is from 1736....

This instrument astonished every beholder, not so much, perhaps, on account of its sound, as its machinery....

extraordinary chance which had saved three lives was a holy miracle or a comic accident according to the religion of the beholder...

properties which constitute beauty, we may observe in general, that beauty consists in whatever pleases the eye of the beholder...

c. 1400, "avowal, pledge, solemn declaration," from Old French protest, from protester, from Latin protestari "declare publicly, testify, protest," from pro- "forth, before" (from PIE root *per- (1) "forward," hence "in front of, before") + testari "testify," from testis "witness

early 14c., "official who receives and examines accounts;" late 14c., "a hearer, one who listens," from Anglo-French auditour (Old French oieor "listener, court clerk," 13c.; Modern French auditeur), from Latin auditor "a hearer, a pupil, scholar, disciple," in Medieval Latin "a

early 15c., "one and indivisible, inseparable" (with reference to the Trinity), from Medieval Latin individualis, from Latin individuus "indivisible," from in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + dividuus "divisible," from dividere "divide" (see divide (v.)). Original sense now ob

late 14c., "deadly, destructive to life; causing or threatening death" (of illness, poisons, wounds, etc.); also, of persons or the body, "doomed to die, subject to death;" from Old French mortel "destined to die; deserving of death" and directly from Latin mortalis "subject to d

1690s, "someone who supplies information," from Latin informantem (nominative informans), present participle of informare "train, instruct, educate" (see inform). Occasionally as "one who gives information to the authorities, one who dishonorably betrays knowledge gained in confi

"one who looks on, a beholder," 1580s, from Latin spectator "viewer, watcher," agent noun from past-participle stem of spectare "to view, watch" (see spectacle). Related: Spectatorial; spectatorship. Fem. form spectatress (1630s) is less classically correct than spectatrix (1610s

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Dictionary entries near beholder

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