Wasnae

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. A Scots dialect contraction meaning was not, used in place of the standard English wasn't in informal speech
2. The northern British dialect form of the negative past tense of be, equivalent to the English phrase was not
3. Scots informal spelling for the past tense negative of the verb to be, meaning that something did not exist or was not the case

Etymology: "Wasnae" is the Scots contraction of "was" and "-nae," the Scots form of "not." The same pattern runs through the whole Scots negative system, so "wasnae" sits alongside "isnae" (is not), "didnae" (did not) and "cannae" (cannot). In each case the negative is fused onto the verb rather than standing as a separate word, which is why the spelling looks so compressed to readers used to standard English. The "-nae" element itself is the regular Scots reflex of the older Northern English and Scots "na" or "nae," descended from the same Old English negative "nā" that gave modern English "no" and "not" their shared ancestry. Scots kept this form long after standard English settled on "not," so the difference between "wasnae" and "wasn't" is essentially a difference of dialect rather than of meaning.