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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

English

unless

/ənˈlɛs/
Except on a specified condition; if not.

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    Origin

    From Middle English unlesse, earlier on lesse (modern on + less), from (not) on lesse (than) (“(not) on a less compelling condition (than)”). The quality of negation in the word and the lack of stress changed on to un-.

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • partEnglishof “From (a place); off.”
      • inheritedMiddle Englishof
        • inheritedOld Englishof
          • derivedOld Englishæf
    • partEnglishon “In the state of being active, functioning or operating.”
      • inheritedMiddle Englishon
        • inheritedOld Englishon “in”
        • inheritedOld Englishān “one”
      • derivedOld Norseón
        • derivedProto-Germanic*ēnu
      • derivedJapanese音読み
    • partEnglishupon “alternative to on in most, though not all, prepositional uses.”
      • inheritedMiddle Englishupon
        • inheritedOld Englishuppan
    • partEnglishin “Contained by; inside.”
      • inheritedMiddle Englishin
        • inheritedOld Englishin “in”
        • derivedOld Englishinn “a dwelling, house, chamber, lodging”
    • partEnglishun- “not”
      • inheritedMiddle Englishun-
        • inheritedOld Englishun-
      • inheritedMiddle Englishon-
        • inheritedOld Englishon-
      • borrowedLatinūnus “one”
        • derivedOld Latinoinos
    • partEnglishless “Used for constructing syntactic diminutive comparatives of adjectives and adverbs.”
      • inheritedMiddle Englishles
        • inheritedOld Englishlǣs “smaller, less”
        • inheritedMiddle Englishlees
        • inheritedMiddle Englishlessen
      • inheritedMiddle Englishlesse

    Meanings

    conj
    1. Except on a specified condition; if not.
    2. If not; used with counterfactual conditionals.
    3. Except if; used with hypothetical conditionals.

    Sources

    • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
    • Wiktionary: unless