Elsif Memes

British programmers really said "we're not using American spelling in our code" and created elsif just to be different. Meanwhile the rest of the world is stuck choosing between elif (Python, Bash) and else if (JavaScript, Java, C++), but Ruby decided to go full British with elsif . The "otherwise" at the end is just *chef's kiss* because it's so unnecessarily formal and British, like your code is having tea with the Queen. It's the programming equivalent of saying "whilst" instead of "while" – technically correct but makes everyone roll their eyes.