"Gif luf be vertew, than is it leful thing;
Gif it be vice, it is your undoing."
Douglas p. 95.
"Ne I ne wol non reherce, yef that I may."
Chaucer.
"She was so charitable and so pytous
She wolde wepe yf that she sawe a mous
Caught in a trappe, if it were deed or bledde."
Prioresse.
"O haste and come to my master dear."
"Gin ye be Barbara Allen."
Burns.
But. This word has two opposite significations. It is derived from two different radicals. But, from the saxon be and utan, out, means be out, leave out, save, except, omit, as, "all but one are here." Leave out, except, one, all are here.