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Was
Definitions
- 1 A surname.
- 1 plural of WA form-of, plural
- 1 first-person singular simple past indicative of be. first-person, form-of, indicative, past, singular
"I was castigated and scorned."
- 2 third-person singular simple past indicative of be. form-of, indicative, past, singular, third-person
"It was a really humongous slice of cake."
- 3 Used in phrases with existential there when the semantic subject is (usually third-person) plural. colloquial
"There was three of them there."
- 4 second-person singular simple past indicative of be; were. colloquial, form-of, indicative, nonstandard, past, second-person, singular
"You was pleased to cast a favourable eye upon me."
- 5 first-person plural simple past indicative of be; were. colloquial, first-person, form-of, indicative, nonstandard, past, plural
"“What happened here, Hadley?” the chief asked. “We was robbed, damn it, we was robbed.”"
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- 6 third-person plural simple past indicative of be; were. colloquial, form-of, indicative, nonstandard, past, plural, third-person
"When the reflection in the glass that I held to my lips now baby / Revealed the tears that was on my face, yeah"
Etymology
From Middle English was, from Old English wæs, from Proto-Germanic *was, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂we-h₂wós-e from *h₂wes- (“to reside”), whence also vestal. See also Scots was, West Frisian was (dated, wie is generally preferred today), Dutch was, Low German was, German war, Swedish var); also Kamkata-viri vos-, Sanskrit उवास (uvā́sa). The paradigm of “to be” has been since the time of Proto-Germanic a synthesis of three originally distinct verb stems. The infinitive form be is from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to become”). The forms is and are are both derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (“to be”). Lastly, the past forms starting with w- such as was and were are from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes- (“to reside”).
See also for "was"
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