weren

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

weren

1. (obsolete) plural simple past form of be
   • 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,

• newer, renew

• IPA^(key): /ˈʋeːrə(n)/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eːrən

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

weren

1. (transitive) to hold back, to keep out

• afweren
• verweren

See the etymology of the main entry.

weren

1. Plural form of weer

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

wēren

1. to hold back, to keep out, to resist
2. to prevent
3. to protect
4. to fight against, to oppose
5. to object (in court)
6. to refuse, to deny

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

• Dutch: weren
• Limburgish: waere

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

wēren

1. to continue, to persist

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

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

From a conflation of Old English wǣron, the plural indicative past of wesan (from Proto-Germanic *wēzun, the third-person plural indicative past of *wesaną) and Old English wǣren, the plural subjunctive past of wesan (from Proto-Germanic *wēzīn, the third-person plural subjunctive past of *wesaną).

• were, wern, weryn
• (after Old Norse vera) waren, warn, worn, woren

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɛːr(ə)n/, /ˈwɛr(ə)n/

weren

1. Plural past indicative form of been
   • c. 1450, 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.

2. Plural subjunctive past form of been

• English: were (obsolete wern, weren)

From Old French guerrier, guerrer.

weren

1. Alternative form of werren