but

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See also: bút, bût, būt, Bụt, But, but-, and бут

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English but, buten, boute, bouten, from Old English būtan (“without, outside of, except, only”), equivalent to be- +‎ out. Cognate with Scots but, bot (“outside, without, but”), Saterland Frisian buute (“without”), West Frisian bûten (“outside of, apart from, other than, except, but”), Dutch buiten (“outside”), Dutch Low Saxon buten (“outside”), German Low German buuten, buute (“outside”), obsolete German baußen (“outside”), Luxembourgish baussen. Compare bin, about.

Eclipsed non-native Middle English mes (“but”) borrowed from Old French mes, mais (> French mais (“but”)).

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "stressed" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /bʌt/, [bɐt], enPR: bŭt
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "stressed" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /bʌt/, enPR: bŭt
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "stressed" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /bʊt/
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "stressed" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /bʊt/
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "Ireland" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): [bɞθ̠]
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Audio (AU):(file)
  • (unstressed) IPA(key): /bət/, enPR: bət
  • Rhymes: -ʌt
  • Homophone: butt

Preposition

but

  1. Apart from, except (for), excluding.
    Synonyms: barring, except for, save for; see also Thesaurus:except
    Everyone but Father left early.
    I like everything but that.
    Nobody answered the door when I knocked, so I had no choice but to leave.
    • 2011 October 23, Becky Ashton, “QPR 1-0 Chelsea”, in BBC Sport:
      Luiz struggled with the movement of Helguson in the box, as he collected a long ball and the Spaniard barged him over, leaving referee Chris Foy little option but to point to the spot.
  2. (obsolete outside Scotland) Outside of.
    Away but the hoose and tell me whae's there.

Adverb

but (not comparable)

  1. (chiefly literary or poetic) Merely, only, just, no more than
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:merely
    Christmas comes but once a year.
  2. (Australia, Geordie, conjunctive) Though, however.
    Synonyms: even so, nevertheless, notwithstanding, yet; see also Thesaurus:nevertheless
    • 1906, "Steele Rudd", Back At Our Selection, page 161:
      "Supposin' the chap ain't dead, but?" Regan persisted.
    I'll have to go home early but.

Conjunction

but

  1. However, although, nevertheless, on the other hand (introducing a clause contrary to prior belief or in contrast with the preceding clause or sentence).
    She is very old but still attractive.
    You told me I could do that, but she said that I could not.
  2. On the contrary, rather (as a regular adversative conjunction, introducing a word or clause in contrast or contradiction with the preceding negative clause or sentence).
    I am not rich but [I am] poor.  Not John but Peter went there.
  3. (colloquial) Used at the beginning of a sentence to express opposition to a remark.
    But I never said you could do that!
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume IV, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book X:
      In reality, I apprehend every amorous widow on the stage would run the hazard of being condemned as a servile imitation of Dido, but that happily very few of our play-house critics understand enough of Latin to read Virgil.
    • 2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 34:
      Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits.
      Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.
    • 2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 55:
      Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee.
  4. Except that (introducing a subordinate clause which qualifies a negative statement); also, with omission of the subject of the subordinate clause, acting as a negative relative, "except one that", "except such that".
    I cannot but feel offended.
  5. (colloquial) Used to link an interjection to the following remark as an intensifier.
    Wow! But that's amazing!
    • 2013 Nora Roberts, Irish Thoroughbred p. 25 (Little, Brown) →ISBN
      "Jakers, but we worked." With a long breath she shut her eyes. "But it was too much for one woman and a half-grown girl […] "
  6. (archaic) Without it also being the case that; unless that (introducing a necessary concomitant).
    It never rains but it pours.
  7. (obsolete) Except with; unless with; without.
    • 1639, Thomas Fuller, “Unseasonable Discords betwixt King Baldwine and His Mother; Her Strength in Yeelding to Her Sonne”, in The Historie of the Holy Warre, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck, one of the printers to the Universitie of Cambridge [and sold by John Williams, London], →OCLC, book II, page 84:
      This man unable to manage his own happineſſe, grew ſo inſolent that he could not go, but either ſpurning his equals, or trampling on his inferiours.
  8. (obsolete) Only; solely; merely.
  9. (obsolete) Until.
  10. (obsolete, following a negated expression of improbability) That. [16th–19th c.]
    • 1784, Joshua Reynolds, in John Ingamells, John Edgcumbe (eds.), The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Yale 2000, p. 131:
      It is not impossible but next year I may have the honour of waiting on your Lordship at St. Asaph, If I go to Ireland I certainly will go that way.
    • 1789, John Moore, Zeluco, Valancourt 2008, p. 132:
      “I am convinced, if you were to press this matter earnestly upon her, she would consent.”
      “It is not impossible but she might,” said Madame de Seidlits […] .
    • 1813, Journal of Natural Philosophy, July:
      It is not improbable but future observations will add Pliny's Well to the class of irregular reciprocators.

Usage notes

  • It is generally considered colloquial to use but at the beginning of a sentence, with other conjunctions such as however or although being preferred in formal writing.
    • But this tool has its uses.
    • However, this tool has its uses.
    • Although this tool does have its uses.

Synonyms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

but (plural buts)

  1. An instance or example of using the word "but".
    It has to be done – no ifs or buts.
  2. (Scotland) The outer room of a small two-room cottage.
  3. A limit; a boundary.
  4. The end; especially the larger or thicker end, or the blunt, in distinction from the sharp, end; the butt.

Derived terms

Verb

but (third-person singular simple present buts, present participle butting, simple past and past participle butted)

  1. (archaic) Use the word "but".
    But me no buts.

Derived terms

Terms derived from the preposition, adverb, conjunction, or noun but

References

Anagrams

Danish

Etymology

From Middle Low German butt.

Adjective

but

  1. (rare) blunt

Inflection

Inflection of but
Positive Comparative Superlative
Indefinte common singular but — —2
Indefinite neuter singular but — —2
Plural butte — —2
Definite attributive1 butte — —
1) When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding "indefinite" form is used.
2) The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

Synonyms

Antonyms

French

Etymology 1

From Middle French but (“mark, goal”), from Old French but (“aim, goal, end, target”), from Old French butte (“mound, knoll, target”), from Frankish *but (“stump, log”), or from Old Norse bútr (“log, stump, butt”); both from Proto-Germanic *buttaz (“end, piece”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewd- (“to beat, push”). Cognate with Old English butt (“tree stump”); see butt. The semantic development from "mound" to "target" is likely from martial training practice. The final /t/ is from the old pausal and liaison pronunciation; its (partial) restoration as the basic form may have been reinforced by related butte. .

Pronunciation

Noun

but m (plural buts)

  1. aim
  2. goal (result one is attempting to achieve)
  3. (sports) goal (in the place, act, or point sense)
Synonyms
Derived terms

Etymology 2

From boire.

Pronunciation

Verb

but

  1. third-person singular past historic of boire

Further reading

Indonesian

Noun

but (first-person possessive butku, second-person possessive butmu, third-person possessive butnya)

  1. (computing) bootstrap (process by which the operating system of a computer is loaded into its memory)

References

Maltese

Root
b-w-t
3 terms

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

Noun

but m (plural bwiet, diminutive bwejjet or buta or bwejta)

  1. pocket
  2. (figuratively) money

Middle English

Noun

but

  1. (Northern) Alternative form of bote (“boot”)

Polish

Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Etymology

Borrowed from Old Czech bot, from Old French bot.

Pronunciation

Template:pl-p

Noun

but m inan (diminutive bucik or butek, augmentative bucior or bucisko)

  1. shoe
  2. boot

Declension

Declension of but
singular plural
nominative but buty
genitive buta butów
dative butowi butom
accusative but buty
instrumental butem butami
locative bucie butach
vocative bucie buty

Derived terms

Further reading

  • but in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • but in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romani

Etymology

Inherited from Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 2 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "psu" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E.,[1] from Sanskrit बहुत्व (bahutva, “much, many, very”).[1][2] Cognate with Hindi बहुत (bahut).

Adjective

but (oblique bute)

  1. much[1][2][3][4]
  2. many[1][2][3]
    But rroma mekhle i India thaj gele p-e aver phuva.
    Many Roma left India and went towards other lands.

Descendants

  • Kalo Finnish Romani: buut

Adverb

but

  1. very[1][4][5]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Boretzky, Norbert, Igla, Birgit (1994) “but”, in Wörterbuch Romani-Deutsch-Englisch für den südosteuropäischen Raum : mit einer Grammatik der Dialektvarianten [Romani-German-English dictionary for the Southern European region] (in German), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, page 39b
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Turner, Ralph Lilley (1969–1985) “bahutva”, in A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages, London: Oxford University Press, page 519
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Marcel Courthiade (2009) “but B-ćham: -e I”, in Melinda Rézműves, editor, Morri angluni rromane ćhibǎqi evroputni lavustik = Első rromani nyelvű európai szótáram : cigány, magyar, angol, francia, spanyol, német, ukrán, román, horvát, szlovák, görög [My First European-Romani Dictionary: Romani, Hungarian, English, French, Spanish, German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Croatian, Slovak, Greek] (overall work in Hungarian and English), Budapest: Fővárosi Onkormányzat Cigány Ház--Romano Kher, →ISBN, page 97a
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Yūsuke Sumi (2018) “but”, in ニューエクスプレスプラス　ロマ（ジプシー）語 [New Express Plus Romani (Gypsy)] (in Japanese), Tokyo: Hakusuisha, published 2021, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 147
  5. ^ Marcel Courthiade (2009) “but II”, in Melinda Rézműves, editor, Morri angluni rromane ćhibǎqi evroputni lavustik = Első rromani nyelvű európai szótáram : cigány, magyar, angol, francia, spanyol, német, ukrán, román, horvát, szlovák, görög [My First European-Romani Dictionary: Romani, Hungarian, English, French, Spanish, German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Croatian, Slovak, Greek] (overall work in Hungarian and English), Budapest: Fővárosi Onkormányzat Cigány Ház--Romano Kher, →ISBN, page 97a

Romanian

Etymology

From Ottoman Turkish بوت (but).

Noun

but n (plural buturi)

  1. thigh of an animal

Declension

Declension of but
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) but butul (niște) buturi buturile
genitive/dative (unui) but butului (unor) buturi buturilor
vocative butule buturilor

Scots

Noun

but (plural buts)

  1. The outer room of a small two-room cottage.

Preposition

but

  1. Outside of, without.

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish بوت (but).

Pronunciation

Noun

bȕt m (Cyrillic spelling бу̏т)

  1. thigh
  2. ham

Declension

Declension of but
singular plural
nominative bȕt bùtovi
genitive buta butova
dative butu butovima
accusative but butove
vocative bute butovi
locative butu butovima
instrumental butom butovima

References

  • “but”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2024

Turkish

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Ottoman Turkish بود (bud), بوت (but), from Proto-Turkic *būt. Compare Old Turkic [script needed] (būt).

Noun

but (definite accusative butu, plural butlar)

  1. thigh

Synonyms

Volapük

Pronunciation

Noun

but (nominative plural buts)

  1. boot

Declension

declension of but
singular plural
nominative but buts
genitive buta butas
dative bute butes
accusative buti butis
vocative 1 o but! o buts!
predicative 2 butu butus
  • 1 status as a case is disputed
  • 2 in later, non-classical Volapük only

Westrobothnian

Etymology 1

From Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "gmq-bot" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E., likely in ablaut relation to Old Norse bauta, Old High German bōzan, Old English bēatan, English beat. Compare Jamtish búss, Norwegian butt, buss.

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "gmq-bot" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E.
    Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "gmq-bot" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E.

Noun

Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "gmq-bot" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E.

  1. A thick stick.
  2. A piece, clod, lump.
  3. In general that which is bulky and shapeless.
    Lua error in Module:languages/errorGetBy at line 16: The language or etymology language code "gmq-bot" in the first parameter is not valid (see Wiktionary:List of languages).
  4. A cumulus cloud.
Derived terms
  • (cloud): Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "gmq-bot" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E.
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "gmq-bot" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E.
  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "gmq-bot" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E.

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "gmq-bot" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E.
    Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "gmq-bot" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E.

Verb

Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "gmq-bot" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E.

  1. To earth up potatoes with a certain kind of plough.

Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "gmq-bot" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "gmq-bot" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "gmq-bot" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "gmq-bot" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E.

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