weren

Etymology

From Middle English weren, from Old English wǣron (plural past indicative of bēon), wǣren (plural past subjunctive of bēon), equivalent to were +‎ -en.

Verb

weren

1. (obsolete) plural simple past form of be
   • Richard the Redeless

     And rafte was youre riott and rest, for youre daiez weren wikkid

   • c. 1450, Prose Merlin

     Whan these thre kynges weren abedde and at her ese that nyght, the storye seith that they lay till on the morn that thei ronge to messe right erly, for it was a litill afore Halowmesse.

   • 1579, Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender

     But sike fancies weren foolerie,

     And broughten this Oake to this miserye.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book II, Canto VII:

     Therein an hundred raunges weren pight,

     And hundred fornaces all burning bright;

   • 1889, John Gower (edited by Henry Morley), Tales of the Seven Deadly Sins: Being the Confessio Amantis:

     For of the falsé Moabites

     Forth with the strength of Amonites

     Of that they weren first misget,

Anagrams

• newer, renew

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʋeːrə(n)/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːrən

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch weren, from Old Dutch *werien, from Proto-Germanic *warjaną.

Etymology 2

See etymology on the main entry.

Etymology 1

From Old Dutch *werien, from Proto-Germanic *warjaną.

Etymology 2

From Old Dutch *werien, from Proto-Germanic *wazjaną.

Further reading

• “weren (II)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• “weren (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929
• “weren (III)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929