if

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English if, earlier yif and gif,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English gif (“if, whether”), also gyf.^[5][6][7][8] The Old English g stood for a sound close to modern y, which was then lost.^[5][3][6][9] The Gersum Project notes that one scholar (Miller 2012) sees the Middle English form as a blend with Old Norse ef (“if”), a view the other dictionaries do not share.^[9] The word is cognate with Old Frisian jef and ef, Old Dutch of, Dutch of (“if, whether”), Old Saxon ef and of, Old High German ibu and oba, German ob (“whether”), and probably with Gothic 𐌾𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌹 (jabai, “if, although”) and 𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌹 (ibai, “whether, lest”).^{[6][7][10][8]} The OED finds the relations among these forms unclear, perhaps reflecting several distinct formations, and its further origin uncertain;^[6] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford call its ultimate origin unknown.^[7][10] Etymonline reconstructs *ja-ba.^[5] Klein, Weekley and Skeat take the conjunctions to be an oblique case of a noun meaning "doubt", so that the word first meant "on condition that"; compare Old High German iba (“condition, stipulation, doubt”) and Old Norse if (“doubt, hesitation”).^{[11][12][13][5][3]} Barnhart instead traces the Germanic form to Proto-Indo-European *yo-di (“in the case in which”), a form of the relative stem, and the forms in i- and e- to a demonstrative stem, both with an emphatic particle added,^[8] while Watkins, as cited by Etymonline, derives it from the pronominal stem Proto-Indo-European *i-.^[5][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

If, in case that, whether: Barnhart dates Old English gif to about 725, in Beowulf.^[8][5] The OED records it in Old English with the conditional clause in the indicative and in the subjunctive, and has the spelling if from about 1250.^[6][8]

Semantic evolution

Beside "on condition that" and "supposing that", the conjunction could mean "although, notwithstanding that" and "whether".^[5][6] Chaucer used it more than 1,400 times, mostly as if but also as yif, yf and gif.^[15] The noun, a condition or supposition, appears in 1513, in Thomas More's History of King Richard III;^[8][4] Johnson (1755) quoted Hooker's "ifs or ands" and Shakespeare's "talk'st thou to me of ifs?".^[16] The informal adjective iffy, doubtful, is recorded from 1937.^[8][17] In Devon the word was pronounced ef, a form Merriam-Webster also labels chiefly dialectal, and if Goddil meant "if God will".^[18][4]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English gif, if, in Beowulf.^[8]
• c. 1250 – the form if.^[6][8]
• 1513 – noun, a condition or supposition, in Thomas More's History of King Richard III.^[8][4]
• 1937 – iffy, doubtful.^[8]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. On condition that; in the event that: If it snows, the match will be cancelled.^[19][4][6]
2. Granting or supposing that: If he really wrote the letter, he hid it well.^[4][20]
3. Whether, in indirect questions: She asked if the shop was open.^[19][4][20]
4. Even though, although: a useful if clumsy tool.^[19][20]
5. With only, introducing a wish: If only we had left earlier!^[19]
6. as if: as it would be if; as though.^[19]

Noun

1. A condition, stipulation or supposition: a plan with too many ifs.^[4][8]
2. ifs and buts: objections or excuses.^[19][10]

Word family

• iffy

Usage notes

If is the general word for a condition, and can also mean "even though" or "whenever";^[20] provided and providing always state a stipulation.^[20] The use of if for "whether" is sometimes criticized, but it has long been established in standard English.^[20]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ a b Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
18. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
19. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
20. ^ a b c d e f Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House