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Sep 16, 2004

This week's theme
Archaic words

This week's words
trow
verily
mayhap
howbeit
levin

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howbeit

adverb: Nevertheless.

conjunction: Although.

[Originally from the expression 'how be it' (however it may be).]

Two cousins of this word are sobeit (provided that; if) and albeit (although it be). Only albeit remains in wider currency.

"An obscure point about this pact, howbeit a very critical concern, is that the diseases it intends to fight exist in poor countries, mostly in Africa, whereas the generic drugs to fight them with are manufactured elsewhere."
E. Ablorh-Odjidja; World Trade, the Next Round; Accra Mail (Ghana); Sep 9, 2003.

"But Elton's pride was creaturely, howbeit that of an extraordinary creature; it was a creature's naked claim on the right to respect itself, a claim that no creature's life could of itself invariably support."
Wendell Berry; A Jonquil for Mary Penn; The Atlantic (Boston); Feb 1992.

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