if
Language: English
Part of speech: conj
Pronunciation: enpr: ĭf
ipa: /ɪf/
rhymes: -ɪf
Forms: form: eef
form: ifen
form: iffen
form: if'n
Etymology: From Middle English if, yif, yef, from Old English ġif (“if”), from Proto-West Germanic *jabu, *jabē, from Proto-Germanic *jabai (“when, if”). Cognate with Scots gif (“if, whether”), Saterland Frisian af, of (“if, whether”), West Frisian oft (“whether”), Dutch of (“or, whether, but”), Middle Low German ef, if, af, of ("if; whether"; > German Low German of), German ob (“if, whether”), Icelandic ef (“if”).
Senses: examples: text: If crossing the road, make sure you look both ways.
text: If I give you the money would/will you buy it for me?
text: If you prefer, I can come tomorrow instead.
text: I'll, if I have time, do it next week.
text: I'll come only if you will do the driving.
text: Fetch me a cold beer if there's one in the fridge.
glosses: Supposing that, assuming that, in the circumstances that; used to introduce a condition that may be (or prove to be) either true or false.
examples: text: if A then B else C
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Supposing that, assuming that, in the circumstances that; used to introduce a condition that may be (or prove to be) either true or false.
A keyword that invokes conditional processing: in the event that a given condition is true, execute the given statement(s) (otherwise execute other statements).
examples: text: If she hadn't told me, I wouldn't know.
text: "You would be healthier if you would give up smoking" "Well, if I were rich, I'd go to one of those hypnosis therapies to quit".
glosses: Supposing that; used with past or past perfect subjunctive to indicate a counterfactual or hypothetical condition.
examples: text: I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on earth.
text: You're finishing your chowder if you sit there all afernoon!
text: “Wait a minute!” said the girl: “I wouldn’t hurry by, if it was you that was coming out to be hung, the next time eight o’clock struck, Bill. I’d walk round and round the place till I dropped, if the snow was on the ground, and I hadn’t a shawl to cover me.”
ref: 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy’s Progress. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:
text: If it’s the last thing I do / If it takes me from Tubilo to Timbuktu / If it’s the last thing I do / I’m gonna dodge every road block, speed trap, county cop / To get my hands on you / If it’s the last thing I do.
ref: 2004, David Lee Murphy and Kim Tribble (writers), Montgomery Gentry (singers), “If It’s The Last Thing I Do” (song), in You Do Your Thing (album)
glosses: Supposing that; used with past or past perfect subjunctive to indicate a counterfactual or hypothetical condition.
Even if; even in the circumstances that.
examples: text: The drain's blocked — and if the drain's blocked, the water won't flow.
text: O what of Gods then boots it to be borne, / If old Aveugles ſonnes ſo euill heare?
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part I (books I–III), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza ii, page 66:
glosses: Considering the fact that; given that; introducing a condition that is known to be true.
examples: text: If you heat water to 100° C, it boils.
text: If it rains, it pours.
glosses: When; whenever; every time that.
examples: text: He was a great friend, if a little stingy at the bar.
text: She won her team's admiration, if not the award, for her performance.
text: Both Spear & Davis were indicted in the witchhunt surrounding the sensational (if nonexistent) "Revere sex ring."
ref: 1981 April 11, Mitzel, “Kopacz Acquitted In Barbre Killing”, in Gay Community News, page 1:
glosses: Although; used to introduce a concession; may..but.
examples: text: I don't know if I want to go or not.
text: Quoth Matthew, “ […] / She doubts if two and two make four, / […] ”
ref: 1715–1717, Matthew Prior, Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind, Canto III
text: It is doubtful if the Victorian Londoner needed any warning, for the artful mobsmen, toolers, whizzers and dippers, together with their stickman accomplices, were everywhere in the crowds, in the underground, on railway trains […]
ref: 1976, Michael Harrison, Beyond Baker Street: A Sherlockian Anthology, page 117:
glosses: Whether; used to introduce a noun clause, an indirect question, that functions as the direct object of certain verbs.
examples: text: I have leftover cake if you want some.
text: If you want to go home, I have the car keys.
glosses: Introducing a relevance conditional; in case.
Derived terms: and if
an if
as if
as if there's no tomorrow
big if true
but if
damned if I know
elif
endif
even if
even if one's life depended on it
hell if I care
if all else fails
if and only if
if and when
if anything
if at all
if-bet
if-by-whiskey
if clause
if ever
if ever there were one
if ever there were some
if there ever were one
if ever there has been one
iff
iffy
if I ever saw one
if I may
if I may make so bold
if I might be so bold
if it be so
if it kills one
if I've ever seen one
if I were you
if money
if need be
if not
if only
ifpology
if push comes to shove
if so
if so be
if that's not
if-then
if-then-else
if-thenism
if-then statement
if there ever was one
I wouldn't piss on someone if they were on fire
nice work if you can get it
nothing if not
one's damned if one does and one's damned if one doesn't
if I care
what if
what-if
would lose one's head if it wasn't bolted on
would lose one's head if it wasn't glued on
would lose one's head if it wasn't screwed on
would lose one's head if it wasn't stuck on
would lose one's head if it wasn't tied on
would lose one's head if it weren't attached