LekhoriLekhoriA command, bidding; sometimes also, an authoritative request; now usually in the phrase at the behest of and at one's behest.
Moſt great and puiſant Monarke of the earth, Your Baſſoe wil accompliſh your beheſt: […]
A vow; a promise.
c. 1440, Markaryte Paston, letter to John Paston The time is come that I should send it her, if I keep the behest that I have made.
From Middle English biheste, from Old English behǣs (“vow, promise”), from Proto-West Germanic *bihaisi, from *bi- (“be-”) + *haisi (“command”), from Proto-Germanic *haisiz, from *haitaną (“to command...
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