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CONJUNCTIONS. And or an apparently used for if

And or an (= if). (The modern and is often spelt an in E. E.) This particle has been derived from an, the imperative of unnan, to grant. This plausible but false derivation was originated by Horne Tooke, and has been adopted by the editors of the Cambridge Shakespeare. But the word is often written and in Early English (Stratmann), as well as in Elizabethan authors.1 “For and I shulde rekene every vice
Which that she hath ywiss, I were to nice.” CHAUC. Squire's Prol. “Alcibiades bade the carter drive over, and he durst.” N.P. 166. “They will set an house on fire and it were but to roast their
eggs.” B. E. 89. “What knowledge should we have of ancient things past and
history were not?” Lord BERNERS, quoted by B. J. 789.

1 So almost always in the Folio. See Index to Plays.

A Shakespearean Grammar. Edwin Abbott Abbott. London and New York. Macmillan and Company. 1870.

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