behoveful

English

Etymology

From Middle English behoveful, equivalent to behove +‎ -ful.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɪˈhəʊvfəl/
• Hyphenation: be‧hove‧ful

Adjective

behoveful (comparative more behoveful, superlative most behoveful)

1. (archaic) Needful or proper; beneficial; behoving.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     No Madam, we haue cul'd such necessaries / As are behoouefull for our state to morrow […].

   • 1600, Christopher Sutton, chapter IV, in Disce Mori: Learn to Die, published 1839:

     How behoveful it is for every Christian man soberly to meditate of his end.

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     she forsaketh and leaveth us to the hazard of fortune; and by art to quest and finde out those things that are behovefull and necessarie for our preservation […]

   • 1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Iohn, Duke of Normandie, Guyen, and Aquitaine, &c. […]”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 51, page 501, column 1:

     [H]is Barons […] flatly oppoſe themſelues both to his commaund and their Countries good, denying him (vntill he vvere aſſoyled of his excommunication,) their attendance in ſo behouefull a ſeruice.

Alternative forms

• behoofful
• behooveful (US)

Derived terms

• behovefully
• behovefulness (unattested; appears only in dictionaries)