Chapter CLXVI: Section VIII: Derivation of Conjunctions

The _English_ Conjunctions are mostly of Anglo-Saxon origin. The best etymological vocabularies of our language give us, for the most part, the same words in Anglo-Saxon characters; but Horne Tooke, in his _Diversions of Purley_, (a learned and curious work which the advanced student may peruse with advantage,) traces, or professes to trace, these and many other English particles, to _Saxon verbs_ or _participles_. The following derivations, so far as they partake of such speculations, are offered principally on his authority:--

1. ALTHOUGH, signifying _admit, allow_, is from _all_ and _though_; the latter being supposed the imperative of Thafian or Thafigan, _to allow, to concede, to yield_.

2. AN, an obsolete or antiquated conjunction, signifying _if_, or _grant_, is the imperative of the Anglo-Saxon verb Anan or Unan, _to grant, to give_.

3. AND, [Saxon, And,] _add_, is said by Tooke to come from "An-ad, the imperative of Ananad, _Dare congeriem_."--_D. of P._, Vol. i, p. 111. That is, "_To give the heap_." The truth of this, if unapparent, I must leave so.

4. AS, according to Dr. Johnson, is from the Teutonic _als_; but Tooke says that _als_ itself is a contraction for _all_ and the original particle _es_ or _as_, meaning _it, that_, or _which_.

5. BECAUSE, from _be_ and _cause_, means _by cause_; the _be_ being written for _by_.

6. BOTH, _the two_, is from the pronominal adjective _both_; which, according to Dr. Alexander Murray, is a contraction of the Visigothic _Bagoth_, signifying _doubled_. The Anglo-Saxons wrote for it _butu, butwu, buta_, and _batwa_; i. e., _ba_, both, _twa_, two.

7. BUT,--(in Saxon, _bute, butan, buton_, or _butun_--) meaning _except, yet, now, only, else than, that not_, or _on the contrary_,--is referred by Tooke and some others, to two roots,--each of them but a conjectural etymon for it. "BUT, implying _addition_," say they, "is from Bot, the imperative of Botan, _to boot, to add_; BUT, denoting _exception_, is from Be-utan, the imperative of Beon-utan, _to be out_."--See _D. of P._, Vol. i, pp. 111 and 155.

8. EITHER, _one of the two_, like the pronominal adjective EITHER, is from the Anglo-Saxon Æther, or Egther, a word of the same uses, and the same import.

9. EKE, _also_, (now nearly obsolete,) is from "Eac, the imperative of Eacan, _to add_."

10. EVEN, whether a noun, an adjective, an adverb, or a conjunction, appears to come from the same source, the Anglo-Saxon word Efen or Æfen.

11. EXCEPT, which, when used as a conjunction, means _unless_, is the imperative, or (according to Dr. Johnson) an ancient perfect participle, of the verb _to except_.

12. FOR, _because_, is from the Saxon preposition _For_; which, to express this meaning, our ancestors combined with something else, reducing to one word some such phrase as, _For that, For this, For this that_; as, "Fortha, Fortham, Forthan, Forthamthe, Forthan the."--See _Bosworth's Dict._

13. IF, _give, grant, allow_, is from "Gif, the imperative of the Anglo-Saxon Gifan, _to give_."--_Tooke's Diversions_, Vol. i, p. 111.

14. LEST, _that not, dismissed_, is from "Lesed, the perfect participle of Lesan, _to dismiss_."

15. NEITHER, _not either_, is a union and contraction of _ne either_: our old writers frequently used _ne_ for _not_; the Anglo-Saxons likewise repeated it, using _ne--ne_, in lieu of our corresponsives _neither--nor_; and our modern lexicographers still note the word, in some of these senses.

16. NOR, _not other, not else_, is supposed to be a union and contraction of _ne or_.

17. NOTWITHSTANDING, _not hindering_, is an English compound of obvious formation.

18. OR, an alternative conjunction, seems to be a word of no great antiquity. It is supposed to be a contraction of _other_, which Johnson and his followers give, in Saxon characters, either as its source, or as its equivalent.

19. PROVIDED, the perfect participle of the verb _provide_, becomes occasionally a disjunctive conjunction, by being used alone or with the particle _that_, to introduce a condition, a saving clause, a proviso.

20. SAVE, anciently used with some frequency as a conjunction, in the sense of _but_, or except is from the imperative of the English verb _save_, and is still occasionally turned to such a use by the poets.

21. SEEING, sometimes made a copulative conjunction, is the imperfect participle of the verb _see_. Used at the head of a clause, and without reference to an agent, it assumes a conjunctive nature.

22. SINCE is conjectured by Tooke to be "the participle of Seon, _to see_," and to mean "_seeing, seeing that, seen that_, or _seen as_."--_Diversions of P._, Vol. i, pp. 111 and 220. But Johnson and others say, it has been formed "by contraction from _sithence_, or _sith thence_, from _sithe_, Sax."--_Joh. Dict._

23. THAN, which introduces the latter term of a comparison, is from the Gothic _than_, or the Anglo-Saxon _thanne_, which was used for the same purpose. 24. THAT, when called a conjunction, is said by Tooke to be etymologically the same as the adjective or pronoun THAT, the derivation of which is twice spoken of above; but, in Todd's Johnson's Dictionary, as abridged by Chalmers, THAT, the _conjunction_, is referred to "_thatei_, Gothic;" THAT, the _pronoun_, to "_that, thata_, Gothic; _thæt_, Saxon; _dat_, Dutch."

25. THEN, used as a conjunction, is doubtless the same word as the Anglo-Saxon _Thenne_, taken as an illative, or word of inference.

26. "THOUGH, _allow_, is [from] the imperative Thaf, or Thafig, of the verb Thafian or Thafigan, _to allow_."--_Tooke's Diversions_, Vol. i, pp. 111 and 150.

27. "UNLESS, _except, dismiss_, is [from] Onles, the imperative of Onlesan, _to dismiss_."--_Ib._

28. WHETHER, a corresponsive conjunction, which introduces the first term of an alternative, is from the Anglo-Saxon _hwæther_, which was used for the same purpose.

29. YET, _nevertheless_, is from "Get, the imperative of Getan, _to get_."--_Tooke_.