but if

English

Conjunction

but if

1. (obsolete) Unless. [13th–16th c.]
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book VIII:

     And therewithall he swange oute a swerde and seyde, ‘But yf thou telle me all who hath ben here, now shalt thou dey!’

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Ne living aide for her on earth appeares, / But-if the heavens helpe to redresse her wrong, / Moved with pity of her plenteous teares.