weren

• wern
• wurn (dialectal)

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

• Audio (US):

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weren

1. (obsolete) plural simple past of be
   • 1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC:

     But sike fancies weren foolerie,
     And broughten this Oake to this miserye.

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     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)

• Hyphenation: we‧ren
• Rhymes: -eːrən

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

weren

1. (transitive) to hold back, to keep out
2. (reflexive) to defend oneself, to put up resistance

• Afrikaans: weer

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

weren

1. plural of weer

From Old Dutch *werien, from Proto-West Germanic *warjan.

wēren

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

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

• Dutch: weren
• Limburgish: waere

From Old Dutch weron, from Proto-West Germanic *weʀēn.

wēren

2. to continue, persist

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

• Dutch: weren (obsolete)

• “weren (II)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “weren (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I
• Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “weren (III)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page III

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/subjunctive of been
   • c. 1450, Richard the Redeless:

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

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 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.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 1450, The Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers:

     And thanne he seide to other folkes that thei shulde seye somme goode thinges for to recomforte the lordes and the people, which werne in grete trouble as for the deth of the moste noble kinge that ever was.

• English: were (obsolete wern, weren)

From Old English werian. Strong forms are analogical to beren, teren, etc.

• wern, werien, veren

weren (third-person singular simple present wereth, present participle werende, werynge, first-/third-person singular past indicative and past participle wered)

1. to wear, be clothed with

• English: wear
• Scots: were, weir
• Yola: waare

• “wēren, v.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

weren

1. alternative form of werren