behövd

Behövd is a historically attested form connected to the Swedish verb behöva, meaning to need. In modern Swedish, this form is considered archaic or dialectal and is rarely used outside of older texts or specific regional varieties. Contemporary usage normally employs the standard past participle behøvt (as in har behövt), and the present participle behövande for ongoing or active states. The simple past form behövde is still common, but behövd itself is largely confined to historical prose.

Linguistic descriptions indicate that behövd functioned as a past participle or adjectival form meaning “needed” or “necessary” in earlier Swedish. Over time, language standardization favored other forms, particularly behøvt for the perfect construction and behövande for the present participle, while behövd faded from everyday use. Today, occurrences are mostly found in scholarly editions, translations of older works, or dialectal texts that preserve earlier inflectional patterns.

Implications for readers and writers are clear: when encountering behövd, treat it as a historical or regional variant rather than a standard modern form. If aiming for contemporary Swedish, prefer behövt in compound tenses and behövande when describing ongoing necessity, while using behövde for simple past actions related to needing.

See also: behöva, behövt, behövande. References to grammar handbooks and Swedish dictionaries note behövd as archaic or regional, and typically do not list it among standard modern inflections.