were

See also: were- and we're

EnglishEdit

English Wikipedia has an article on:

Were (disambiguation)

Etymology 1Edit

From Middle English were, weren, from Old English wǣre, wǣron, wǣren, from Proto-Germanic *wēz-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-. More at was.

PronunciationEdit

stressed

(UK) enPR: wûr, IPA^(key): /wɜː(ɹ)/
(UK, regional) enPR: wâr, IPA^(key): /wɛə(ɹ)/
(US) enPR: wûr, IPA^(key): /wɝ/
Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)
Homophone: whirr (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

unstressed

(UK) enPR: wər, IPA^(key): /wə(ɹ)/
(US) enPR: wər, IPA^(key): /wɚ/
Audio (US)
(file)

VerbEdit

were

second-person singular simple past indicative of be
John, you were the only person to see him.
first/second/third-person plural simple past indicative of be
We were about to leave.

Mary and John, you were right.

They were a fine group.

They were to be the best of friends from that day on.
first/second/third-person singular/plural simple past subjunctive of be
I wish that it were Sunday.
I wish that I were with you.
- with “if” omitted, put first in an “if” clause:
  Were it simply that she wore a hat, I would not be upset at all. (= If it were simply...)
  
  Were father a king, we would have war. (= If father were a king,...)
- 2011 November 3, David Ornstein, “Macc Tel-Aviv 1 - 2 Stoke”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:
  Maccabi would have been out of contention were it not for Stoke's profligacy, but their fortune eventually ran out as the visitors opened the scoring.
(Northern England) was.

SynonymsEdit

(second-person singular past indicative, archaic) wast (used with “thou”)
(second-person singular imperfect subjunctive, archaic) wert (used with “thou”)

Etymology 2Edit

From Middle English were, wer, from Old English wer, from Proto-Germanic *weraz, from Proto-Indo-European *wiHrós (“man”). Cognate with Latin vir (“man”). The original meaning of “man” is now preserved only in compounds like were wolf (“man-wolf”) and were gild (“man gold (payment)”).

NounEdit

English Wikipedia has an article on:

were

Wikipedia

were (plural weres)

(obsolete) A man, a husband
(obsolete) A fine for slaying a man; weregild.
- Bosworth
  Every man was valued at a certain sum, which was called his were.
- 2004, James Fitzjames Stephen, A General View of the Criminal Law of England, →ISBN, page 12-13:
  The consequence of conviction was, the payment to the person injured, of a were, or penalty, proportioned to the offencel but though this was the ordinary course, the recovery of the were was not the only object of the proceedings. "The were," says Reeve, "in cases of homicide, and the fines that were paid in cases of theft of various kinds, were only to redeem the offender from the proper punishment of the law, which was death, and that was reddemable, not only by paying money, but by undergoing some personal pains; hence it is that we hear a great variety of corporal punishments..."...
(fandom slang) The collective name for any kind of person that changes into another form under certain conditions, including the werewolf.

Related termsEdit

AnagramsEdit

Ewer, ewer, ewre, rewe, weer

DutchEdit

PronunciationEdit

Audio
(file)
Rhymes: -eːrə

VerbEdit

were

(archaic) singular present subjunctive of weren

AnagramsEdit

weer

FijianEdit

NounEdit

were

garden

VerbEdit

were (wereca)

to garden, to weed (wereca specifically)

IrarutuEdit

were

EtymologyEdit

From Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *waiʀ, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *wahiʀ.

NounEdit

were

water (clear liquid H₂O)

KurdishEdit

VerbEdit

were

second-person singular imperative of hatin

Maku'aEdit

NounEdit

were

water

ReferencesEdit

Aone van Engelenhoven, The position of Makuva among the Austronesian languages of Southwest Maluku and East Timor, in Austronesian historical linguistics and culture history: a festschrift, Pacific linguistics 601 (2009)