US /wɜr/ UK /wɜː/
noun verb det Freq #24913

Meanings

  1. 1
    noun

    historical: a man, or the monetary value assigned to a man's life under early Germanic law

    The victim's kin could accept payment of the wer instead of pursuing a feud.

  2. 2
    verb

    eye dialect spelling of were

    If I wer you, I would leave before dark.

  3. 3
    det

    Yorkshire dialect pronunciation spelling of our

    He would not remain in wer company.

Thesaurus

Synonyms
1 noun · historical: a man, or the... manwergeld
2 verb · eye dialect spelling of were were
3 det · yorkshire dialect... our
Word family
Related forms werewolfwergeldwereour

Etymology

The historical noun descends from Old English wer, 'man,' from Proto-Germanic *weraz; it survives visibly in werewolf and wergeld. The were and our senses are separate eye-dialect spellings based on regional pronunciation.

Topics

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