es sei denn

== German == === Etymology === From Middle High German ez ne sî denne, a stereotypical negatively exceptive sentence literally meaning "unless it be the case then". The simple negation ne had been gradually vanishing since medieval times and had been dropped entirely by Luther's time. Since the disappearance of ne, the negative function has been assumed by denn (or dann), meaning "then" (i.e. "at that time"), which was originally facultative but gradually came to serve as the standard marker for this type of exception clause. Early New High German examples of this transitional syntax are: By the modern day however, es sei denn does not evoke this usage of denn, as it is no longer understood through the meaning of its constituent parts. === Conjunction === es sei denn unless ==== See also ==== wenn nicht === References ===