wert

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wert

(wûrt)

v. Archaic

A second person singular past indicative and past subjunctive of be.

[were + -t, archaic second person sing. ending (as in art wast).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

wert

(wɜːt; unstressed wət)

archaic or dialect (used with the pronoun: thou or its relative equivalent) a singular form of the past tense (indicative mood) of be¹

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

be

(bi; unstressed bi, bɪ)

v. and auxiliary v., pres. sing. 1st pers. am, 2nd are, 3rd is, pres. pl. are; past sing. 1st pers. was, 2nd were, 3rd was, past pl. were; pres. subj. be; past subj. sing. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd pers. were; past subj. pl. were; past part. been; pres. part. be•ing. v.i.

1. to exist or live: Shakespeare's “To be or not to be” is the ultimate question.

2. to take place; occur: The wedding was last week.

3. to occupy a place or position: The book is on the table.

4. to continue or remain as before: Let things be.

5. to belong; attend; befall: May good fortune be with you.

6. (used as a copula to connect the subject with its predicate adjective, or predicate nominative, in order to describe, identify, or amplify the subject): He is tall. She is president.

7. (used as a copula to introduce or form interrogative or imperative sentences): Is that right? Be quiet!

auxiliary verb.

8. (used with the present participle of another verb to form progressive tenses): I am waiting. We were talking.

9. (used with the infinitive of the principal verb to indicate a command, arrangements, or future action): He is to see me today. You are not to leave before six.

10. (used with the past participle of another verb to form the passive voice): The date was fixed.

11. (used in archaic or literary constructions with some intransitive verbs to form perfect tenses): He is come.

[before 900; Middle English; Old English bēon; akin to Old Frisian, Old High German bim (I) am, Latin fuī (I) have been, Greek phýein to grow, become]

usage: See me.

Be

Chem. Symbol.

beryllium.

be-

a prefix with the original sense “about,” “around,” “all over,” hence having an intensive and often disparaging force; used as a verb formative (becloud; besiege), and often serving to form transitive verbs from intransitives or from nouns: belabor; befriend; belittle.

[Middle English, Old English, unstressed form of bī by¹]

B.E.

1. Bachelor of Education.

2. Bachelor of Engineering.

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References in classic literature ?

Wert thou but once here, my friend, though wouldst feel and own the power of knowledge.

Rest there in peace, till thou art a wiser man than thou wert.'

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Thou wert my dream All a long summer night-- Be now my theme!

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on that warm couch thou shalt lie, stripped of thy clothes as if thou wert to rest on a bed of down.

Thy cunning may soon swell out once more thy shrivelled purse, but neither leech nor medicine can restore thy scorched hide and flesh wert thou once stretched on these bars.

Thou wert not so patient, Isaac, when thou didst invoke justice against Jacques Fitzdotterel, for calling thee a usurious blood-sucker, when thy exactions had devoured his patrimony.''

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"Yea," said young Gamwell, "and I did so look up to thee, and thought thee so above all other men that, I make my vow, had I known who thou wert, I would never have dared to lift hand against thee this day.

"If thou wilt have it so, thou wert right to abide wherever thou didst choose."

I did not see thee drubbed; I did not see thee tumbled heels over head in the dust; and if any man says that thou wert, I can with a clear conscience rattle his lying tongue betwixt his teeth."

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And though thou wert of the race of the hot-tempered, or of the voluptuous, or of the fanatical, or the vindictive;

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Do thou abide below here, where they shall serve thee, as if thou wert the captain.

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"Thee availeth not to cry, weep and pray," he says, "but haste thee lightly that thou wert gone the journey."