beseon

From Proto-Germanic *bisehwaną (“to look, besee”), equivalent to be- +‎ sēon. Cognate with Old Saxon bisehan, Old High German *bisehan, Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐍃𐌰𐌹𐍈𐌰𐌽 (bisaiƕan).

• IPA^(key): /beˈse͜oːn/

besēon

1. to see or look about or around
   • late 10th century, Ælfric, "Chair of Saint Peter"

     ...ðā beseah hē tō Petre sumere ælmessan wilniġende...

     Then looked he towards Peter, desiring an alms,...

   • c. 990, Wessex Gospels, Luke 9:62

     Nān mann þe his hand āsett on his sulh and onbæc besihþ nis andfenġe Godes rīċe.

     No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

   • late 10th century, Ælfric, "THE NATIVITY OF ST. ANDREW THE APOSTLE"

     Crist ða beseah upp wið þæs rican...

     Christ then looked up towards the rich man...

   • Early 11th c., Defensor's translation of Liber Scintillarum

     ...nā besēoh þū on wīfes hiw...

     ...do not look at a woman's appearance...

2. to see, behold
   • Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church

     Þā besēah Martinus wið þǣs sċeoccan lēoht, ġemyndiġ on mōde hū sē Metoda Drihten cwæð on his godspelle þe his godcundan tōcyme, and cwæð tō ðām lēasan mid ġelǣredum mūðe, "Ne sǣde ūre Hǣlend þæt hē swā wolde bēon mid purpuran gehīwod, oððe mid helme scīnende, þonne hē eft cōme mid engla ðrymme." Đā fordwān sē deofol drēoriġ him fram, and sēo stōw ðā stanc mid ormǣtum stenċe, æfter andwerdnysse þǣs eġeslīċan gāstes.

     Then Martinus beheld the demon's light, mindful of what the Lord God said in his gospel about his divine coming, and said to the false one with learned mouth, "Our Savior did not say that he would be habited in purple, or that he would have a shining crown, when he came again with a host of angels." Then the sad devil disappeared, and the place stank with a powerful stench after the presence of the horrible spirit.

3. to go to see, visit
4. to see to, care for, attend to, provide for

• Middle English: beseen
  • English: besee

• Joseph Bosworth; T. Northcote Toller (1898), “beseón”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.