not but
English edit
Conjunction edit
- (now rare, archaic) Introducing a subordinate clause, frequently with that: "it is not that (the following clause) is not the case". [17th–19th c.]
- 1717, Alexander Pope, A Discourse on Pastoral Poetry:
- Spenser's Calendar, in Mr Dryden's opinion, is the most complete work of this kind which any nation has produced ever since the time of Virgil. Not but that he may be thought imperfect in some few points.
- 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
- [H]e did not fail to be extremely disconcerted at his first entrance into a scene of life to which he was totally a stranger. Not but that he met with abundance of people in the country […] .
- 1768, Isaac Bickerstaff, Lionel and Clarissa:
- Not but your father has good qualities, and I assure you I remember him a very fine gentleman himself.
- 1792, Jane Austen, ‘Lesley Castle’, Juvenilia:
- This was the only very severe thing I ever said in my Life; not but that I have often felt myself extremely satirical but it was the only time I ever made my feelings public.
- 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter VI, in Great Expectations […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 94:
- I believe you they dread him. Not but what he's artful, even in his defiance of them.