butan

Forms

būtan^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *biūtan, formed from *bī (“by”) and *ūtan, the dative of *ūtō (“outside”).^[1] Within Old English it corresponds to be- and ūtan (“from outside”), as Bosworth and Toller, Holthausen and Köbler analyse it.^[2][3][4] The same formation is found in Old Frisian būta, Old Saxon biūtan and Old High German biūzan,^[4] and in Dutch buiten.^[3]

The adverb *ūt (“out”) behind it continues Proto-Indo-European *úd (“out”), its vowel lengthened because the word was a monosyllable.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest dated record is a charter of King Æthelberht of 858, surviving in a contemporary single sheet: the land at Mersham was made folkland butan ðem merscum & butan ðem sealtern et Fefresham “except for the marshes and except for the salt-works at Faversham”.^[6][7] The Vespasian Psalter gloss of the mid-ninth century has butan intingan “without cause” for Latin “sine causa”.^[8][7]

Semantic evolution

As a preposition with the dative, rarely the accusative, it first meant “outside of, out of” (bútan ðære wícstówe “outside the camp”), and then “without” and “except”.^[2][9] As a conjunction it means “unless” with the subjunctive and “except that” with the indicative.^[2][10] After a negative it came to mean “only”: ne … būton “nothing but”.^[3][11] In glosses it renders Latin sine, praeter, extra and nisi.^[4] The spelling būton is the usual one in the laws.^[11]

Etymonline notes that it was not used for “on the contrary” until late Old English.^[12] It continued as Middle English but, now English but.^[12]

Timeline

• 858 – butan ðem merscum “except for the marshes” in a charter surviving in a contemporary copy.^[6][7]
• s. ix med. – butan intingan “without cause” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[8][7]
• 890×897 – butan scylde “without guilt” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[13][7]

Meanings

Preposition

1. outside of, out of.^[2][9]
2. without, free from.^[2][14]
3. except, besides.^[2][4]

Conjunction

1. with the subjunctive, unless.^[2][10]
2. with the indicative, except that, but that.^[2][10]

Adverb

1. after a negative, only.^[3][11]
2. outside.^[14][11]

Word family

• onbūtan

Descendants

• Middle English but (→ English but; Scots but)^[1]

Related words

• ūtan
• ūt

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 136
3. ^ a b c d Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 39
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. būtan
5. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 562
6. ^ a b The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 328
7. ^ a b c d e Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
8. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 329
9. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 112
10. ^ a b c Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. būton
11. ^ a b c d Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 29
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
14. ^ a b Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 52