Was

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /wəz/

Definitions

1. To exist or occur at a particular time in the past
2. To denote existence, presence, or a state that happened in the past
3. Expressed that someone or something existed or took place at a time before now

Etymology: The past tense "was" is one of the oldest and most stubborn survivors in English, and it is not a simple past of "be" at all. It belongs to a suppletive paradigm, where "to be" borrows forms from several unrelated verbs. The present forms "am," "is," and "are" come from one root, the infinitive "be" from another, and the past forms beginning with w- ("was" and "were") from a third, which is why the verb looks so irregular. The w- past forms trace back to an ancient Indo-European root meaning "to reside," which also gave English "vestal," the name for the Roman virgins who tended the sacred hearth. Cognates survive across the Germanic languages, such as German "war," Dutch "was," and Swedish "var," and even reach far east to Sanskrit "uvā́sa," which likewise means "dwelt" in the past. So "was" originally described living somewhere rather than simply existing, a sense that the verb has long since lost.

Synonyms: were, has been, had been

Antonyms: is, will be