beholdes

Beholdes is a historical English verb form that functioned as the third-person singular present tense of the verb behold. It is an archaic spelling that appears in Early Modern English texts, with modern standard spelling typically rendering the form as beholds.

Etymology and usage: Beholdes derives from the base verb behold and reflects variability in early English spelling. In the same historical period, other inflectional variants such as beholdeth or beholdes circulated in print. The form was common in 16th and 17th-century religious, legal, and literary writings, where printers and writers used orthographic practices that later standardized toward beholdes (and then behold and beholds in modern usage).

Context and examples: In older texts, readers may encounter phrases like “he beholdes the heavens” or similar constructions where the sentence meaning aligns with the modern “he beholds the heavens.” The distinction is primarily orthographic; the meaning remains the same as the contemporary 3rd-person singular form.

Modern status: Today, beholdes is rarely used outside historical or stylistic contexts. Contemporary English generally uses behold in the base form and beholds in the modern third-person singular. Beholdes persists in discussions of historical linguistics, textual criticism, and readings of Early Modern English literature.

See also: behold, beholds, beholdeth, archaic English, Early Modern English.