Behabban

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An Old English verb meaning to hold, have or possess something in one's keeping
2. A obsolete Old English word for holding or having something in one's possession
3. Archaic Old English term describing the act of keeping, holding or owning an object

Etymology: The Old English verb "behabban" is built from the prefix "be-" and "habban," "to have, hold." Its surviving uses point to a sense of holding or restraining something, and it is attested in only a handful of texts, so its exact range of meaning is uncertain. Its close relatives in other early Germanic languages, such as Old Saxon and Old High German, follow the same pattern. The word is not a direct ancestor of modern "behave," though the two are often mistaken for one another. "Behave" appears in Middle English as "behaven," formed in a later period from the same elements. Its key development was the reflexive use "to have oneself" in a certain manner, so that "to behave" came to mean "to conduct oneself." The sense of good or proper conduct arrived later still, so the modern meaning owes more to that reflexive phrase than to the older verb's sense of holding back.