Talk:lo and behold

Wikipedia:lo and behold authors and history

• 2005-07-15 12:56:08 User:Radiant! ({{move to wiktionary}})
• 2005-05-09 02:01:04 User:Sn0wflake

From Wikipedia:Talk:lo and behold

The following information has failed Wiktionary's verification process.

Failure to be verified means that insufficient eligible citations of this usage have been found, and the entry therefore does not meet Wiktionary inclusion criteria at the present time. We have archived here the disputed information, the verification discussion, and any documentation gathered so far, pending further evidence.
Do not re-add this information to the article without also submitting proof that it meets Wiktionary's criteria for inclusion.

---

lo and behold

Rfv-sense. I thought that this expression meant something more akin to "Well, what do you know?!", a mocking surprise. Certainly not "suddenly". __meco 09:23, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

You are right. lo is an old word meaning look, and this phrase usually indicates that some (bad but predictable) event or behaviour has been witnessed. I am finding it difficult to come up with a suitable definition, though. Chambers has this: "(often facetious) used to signal a startling revelation". Equinox 10:02, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

FWIW: OALD: "(humorous) used for calling attention to a surprising or an annoying thing" --Duncan 11:57, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps something alluding to the sense of the German (deprecated template usage) schadenfroh. __meco 10:17, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Seems the English has absorbed this as (deprecated template usage) schadenfreude. Even (deprecated template usage) gloating would be relevant. __meco 10:23, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

It's not necessarily used gloatingly or with schadenfreude. Example: "He promised me he'd never leave me, and the next day lo and behold he's with another girl!" This speaker could be justifiably upset. Equinox 23:20, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

RFV failed, sense replaced with {{defn|English}}. —Ruakh_TALK 01:09, 12 May 2009 (UTC)