wern

English

Alternative forms

• weren
• wurn (dialectal)

Etymology

From Middle English weren, equivalent to were +‎ -en.

Verb

wern

1. (obsolete) plural simple past of be
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IIII, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, page 32:

     Her name was Agape whoſe children werne
     All three as one, the firſt hight Priamond,
     The ſecond Dyamond, the youngeſt Triamond.

   • 1843, John Ward, “Chapter XI. Burslem-(Continued.)”, in The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent in the Commencement of the Reign of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria […] , London: W. Lewis & Son, A Burslem Dialogue, page 230:

     T. Oi've yerd em sey, yo' wern aw lung-woinded at that teyme; wur it so, Rafy?

   • 1910, “Glasgerion”, in Arthur Quiller-Couch, editor, The Oxford Book of English Verse:

     Through the falseness of that lither lad
     These three lives wern all gone.

Anagrams

• Wren, wren

Middle English

Verb

wern

1. Alternative form of weren
2. To refuse.
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “(please specify the story)”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:

     He is too great a niggard that will wern/ A man to light a candle at his lantern.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)