English
but
But comes from Old English būtan ‘without, outside of, except, only’, and goes back to Proto-West Germanic *biūtan.
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*biūtan1‘outside’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150būtan1‘without’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500but1
- Englishearliest quotation 1590but1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English but
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto VI: “No arboret with painted blossomes drest, / And smelling…”.
Lineage
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*biūtanWiktionary, English but‘outside’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150būtanWiktionary, English but‘without’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500butWiktionary, English but
- Englishearliest quotation 1590butWiktionary, English but. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto VI: “No arboret with painted blossomes drest, / And smelling…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with but, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Old English būtan ‘without, outside of, except, only’
- about ← aboute ← onbūtan
through Middle English but
Explore everything descended from *biūtan →
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Today it means
prep Apart from, except (for), excluding.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “but”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.