meaning - Need help understanding phrases of the form "x if y"


I regularly find myself confused by phrases of the form "x if y". For example, in the 2010-10-22 issue of his newsletter, Paul Thurrott writes:



Well, if you're Wall Street Journal technology maven and Apple lover Walter Mossberg, you simply write an unfair review that ignores the product's best features and harps on obvious if little-needed functional miscues such as the lack of copy and paste.



Here's another example, from a TV guide article:



Best known in the U.S. for formulaic, if handsome, genre films like Mimic (1997) and Blade II (2002), del Toro



The usage of 'if' in these examples confuses me. What is the intended meaning of these sentences? Can I just substitute "if" with "though"?



Answer



Ah awesome word! It fits under defintion 3 at dictionary.com (the World English Dictionary part) and definition 4 at Merriam. I like Merriam's better:



: even though : although perhaps; an interesting if untenable argument



I think it can be used both as a way to make a good quality not as strong, or show some saving grace of a good quality. an interesting if untenable argument says that although the argument is interesting, it is untenable. On the other hand, from your TV guide article, formulaic if handsome genre films says that the films are formulaic, but at least they're handsome.


I just connected this to a Russian word, зато, which I think can only be used to make bad situations better. тупая зато красивая = stupid but pretty.


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