WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : And
Part of Speech : conj.
Etymology : [AS. and; akin to OS. endi, Icel. enda, OHG. anti, enti, inti, unti, G. und, D. en, OD. ende. Cf, An if, Ante-.]
Definition : 1. A particle which expresses the relation of connection or addition. It is used to conjoin a word with a word, a clause with a clause, or a sentence with a sentence.

Note: (a) It is sometimes used emphatically; as, "there are women and women," that is, two very different sorts of women. (b) By a rhetorical figure, notions, one of which is modificatory of the other, are connected by and; as, "the tediousness and process of my travel," that is, the tedious process, etc.; "thy fair and outward character," that is, thy outwardly fair character, Schmidt's Shak. Lex.

2. In order to; -- used instead of the infinitival to, especially after try, come, go. At least to try and teach the erring soul. Milton.

3. It is sometimes, in old songs, a mere expletive. When that I was and a little tiny boy. Shak.

4. If; though. See An, conj. [Obs.] Chaucer. As they will set an house on fire, and it were but to roast their eggs. Bacon. And so forth, and others; and the rest; and similar things; and other things or ingredients. The abbreviation, etc. (et cetera), or &c., is usually read and so forth.


Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913