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No buts about it

Q: I recently wrote to you about the use of “which” as a conjunction. Well, “but” is now being used as a relative pronoun. This is from a Consumer Cellular television ad: “If you want a smart phone with lots of bells and whistles but won’t break the bank, we’ve got that, too.”

A: We haven’t noticed a significant increase in the use of “but” as a relative pronoun, but such a phenomenon wouldn’t surprise us. The word “but” has been used as a relative for hundreds of years.

We’ll discuss the TV ad later (it’s nonstandard English, by the way). But first let’s look at the history of “but” as a relative pronoun meaning “who … not,” “that … not,” or “which … not”—a usage that dates back to the early 15th century in English writing.

The first citation in the Oxford English Dictionary is from Troyyes Book (circa 1420), John Lydgate’s translation from the Latin of Historia Destructionis Troiae (1287), by Guido delle Colonne:

“Þer nas … Nat left a man withInne Troye toun Þat able was to stonden in bataille … but þei comen oute” (“there was … not left a man in Troy town able to stand in battle … but they came out [i.e., that did not come out]”).

As the OED explains, “but” here means “that … not” and is used in a subordinate clause before a pronoun that refers back to the subject or object of the main clause.

The dictionary also includes a similar usage with the pronoun unexpressed, so “but acts as a negative relative: that … not, who … not (e.g. Not a man but felt this terror, i.e. there was not a man who did not feel this terror, they all felt this terror).”

We wrote a post in 2020 that explains this similar use of “but” as a relative pronoun.]

Oxford cites this example from The Three Kings’ Sons (circa 1500), an anonymous Middle English translation of a French romance by David Aubert, edited in 1895 by Frederick James Furnivall:

“There be none othir there that knowe me, but wold be glad to wite me do wele” (“There be none other there that know me, but would be glad [i.e., that would not be glad] to see me do well”).

[Note: On Jan. 28, 2025, a reader sent in this example from Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors (circa 1594): “There’s not a man I meet but doth salute me / As if I were their well-acquainted friend.”]

The OED describes this use of “but”as obsolete or archaic, but modern standard dictionaries, which reflect contemporary usage, still recognize the use of “but” to mean “who … not,”  “that … not,” or “which … not.”

Both Collins and Webster’s New World give this example: “Not a man but felt it.” Merriam-Webster cites Mistress Quickly in Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor (circa 1597): “nobody but has his fault.”

American Heritage has this example: “There never is a tax law presented but someone will oppose it.” It also has an example for “but” used to mean simply “that,” a usage described as informal: “There is no doubt but right will prevail.”

As you’ve probably noticed, the use of “but” to mean “that … not” is similar to its use as a preposition meaning “with the exception of,” as in “none but the brave deserves the fair” (from John Dryden’s 1697 ode “Alexander’s Feast, or the Power of Music”).

Finally, let’s discuss the TV ad that got your attention: “If you want a smart phone with lots of bells and whistles but won’t break the bank, we’ve got that, too.”

We haven’t seen the ad or found any dictionary or usage guide that recognizes this nonstandard sense of “but.”

More to the point, the sentence would be clunky even if “but” were replaced by “that.” We’d rewrite it this way, with “but” as a conjunction: “If you want a smart phone that has lots of bells and whistles but won’t break the bank, we’ve got that, too.”

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