Was

From Fresh Dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Pronunciation 1.2 Etymology 1.3 Verb 2 Dutch 2.1 Verb 2.1.1 Expressions 2.1.2 Related terms 2.2 Noun 3 German 3.1 Etymology 3.2 Interrogative pronoun 3.3 Relative pronoun 3.4 Derived terms 4 Polish 4.1 Pronoun

English

Pronunciation

stressed

• AHD: wŏz, wÅ­z
• IPA: /wɒz/, /wʌz/
• SAMPA: /wQz/, /wVz/
• Image:Loudspeaker.png Audio (US)^{?, file}

unstressed

• AHD: wəz
• IPA: /wəz/
• SAMPA: /w@z/
• Image:Loudspeaker.png Audio (US)^{?, file} ) (in the phrase "I was there")

Etymology

From Germanic *wêsôn, cognate with German war < Proto-Indo-European *wes- "to reside". The paradigm of "to be" has been since the time of Proto-Germanic a synthesis of three originally distinct verb stems. The infinitive form "to be" is from Proto-Indo-European *bHeu- "to become". The words "is" and "are" are both derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- "to be". Lastly, the past forms starting with "w-" such as "was" and "were" are from Proto-Indo-European *wes- "to reside".

Verb

was

• First-person singular past tense of to be.
• Third-person singular past tense of to be.

---

Dutch

Verb

was

1. Past tense singular of zijn.
2. Present tense singular 1st person of wassen (meaning to wash.)
3. Present tense singular 1st person of wassen (another meaning is to grow.)

Expressions

• uit de kluiten gewassen

Related terms

• gewas n.

Noun

was

1. wax, what bees make their housing from.
2. laundry, clothes that need to be washed, or just have been washed.
3. growth, growth in height or volume (see wassen.)

---

German

Etymology

Old High German (h)waz, originally *(h)wat, compare Dutch wat

Interrogative pronoun

was

1. what

Relative pronoun

was

1. which

Derived terms

• was für

---

Polish

Pronoun

was

1. Genitive, accusative and locative of wy (you, plural.)ang:was

de:was fr:was la:was hu:was nl:was ja:was pt:was fi:was zh:was