LekhoriLekhoriExcept on a specified condition; if not.
I’m leaving unless I get a pay rise.
If not; used with counterfactual conditionals.
Who would know of Alexander or Caesar, or would respect the Stoics or the Peripatetics, unless they had been distinguished by the memorials of writers?
Except if; used with hypothetical conditionals.
Q. If Lieutenant P. had given the word "Fire," would you have fired, and at what?—A. I should not have known, unless he had told me what to fire at.
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...
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