eldertongue

Old English · conjunction

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Part of speech
conjunction
IPA
/jif/
Syllables
jif (1 syllable)
Modern English
ifyif

Meaning

  1. if

    ...ac hī ġeēacniacð heora wīta, ġif hī ǣr ende ne ċyrrað.

    ...but they add to their punishments, if they turn not before the end..

    late 10th century, Ælfric, "Saint George, Martyr"

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *jabē, *jabu, from Proto-Germanic *jabai (“when, if”) with anomalous apocope. The expected form is attested once as ġyfe in the early 7th-century Law of Æthelberht, if not simply a scribal error.

Descendants

if, yif

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