Were
A were was an adult male human often paired to alliterate with wife as "were and wife." Another like pair in older English was "groom and girl." Since in older modern English, wife most often meant any female (as were was a male), the word Bride was the more natural term for a married woman.
Were- also forms a prefix in the word World (q.v.) with the archaic eld to mean "Age of Humanity" or perhaps "Mortal Time."
This word is kin to the Latin loan-words, virile and virtue.
In folklore and fantasy fiction, the prefix "were-" is often applied to the name of an animal shapeshifter (for example, "were-boar"); this usage of the term is directly derived from the werewolf.
Past plural and subjunctive of the verb to be.
