Etymology Dictionary

AND,  copulative conjunction.  (E.)   Common from the earliest times.—A.S. and, also written ond. + O. Sax. ende, and. + O. Fries. ande, and, an, end, en. + Du. en. + Icel. enda, if, even if, moreover (rather differently used, but the same word). + O.H.G. anti, enti, inti, unti; mod. G. und.   ¶ 1. The remoter origin does not seem to have been satisfactorily traced, but it can hardly be separated from the A.S. prefix and- (occurring in along and answer), and the Gothic prefix and-, which are clearly related to the Lat. ante, before, Gk. ἀντί, over against, Skt. anti, a Vedic form, equivalent to Gk. ἀντί, over against; (see antika, vicinity, in Benfey's Skt. Dict. p. 28.)   This sense of 'over against' is fairly well preserved in G. entgegen, and in the A.S. andswarian, E. an-swer; and from this sense to its use as a copulative conjunction is an easy step.   See Answer.   2. The Icelandic use of enda in the sense not only of 'moreover,' but of 'if,' is the obvious origin of the use of the M.E. and in the sense of 'if.'   Thus we have in Havelok, a poem with marked Scandinavianisms, the sentence, 'And thou wile my conseil tro, Ful wel shal ich with the do;' i.e. if you will trust my counsel, I will do very well by you; l. 2861.   3. In order to differentiate the senses, i.e. to mark off the two meanings of and more readily, it became at last usual to drop the final d when the word was used in the sense of 'if;' a use very common in Shakespeare.   Thus Shakespeare's an is nothing but a Scandinavian use of the common word and.   When the force of an grew misty, it was reduplicated by the addition of 'if;' so that an if really meaning 'if-if,' is of common occurrence.   Neither is there anything remarkable in the use of and if as another spelling of an if; and it has been preserved in this form in a well-known passage in the Bible:  'But and if,' Matt. xxiv. 48.   4. There is, perhaps, an etymological connection with end.   See End.