Were

{{Short description|Archaic term for an adult male human}}

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{{for|the Ohio radio station|WERE}}

{{Wiktionary|wer#English}}

Were and wer are archaic terms for adult male humans and were often used for alliteration with wife as "were and wife" in Germanic-speaking cultures{{cite journal |last1=Rauer |first1=Christine |title=Mann and Gender in Old English Prose: A Pilot Study |journal=Neophilologus |date=January 2017 |volume=101 |issue=1 |pages=139–158 |doi=10.1007/s11061-016-9489-1|hdl=10023/8978 |s2cid=55817181 |hdl-access=free }} ({{langx|ang|wer}}, {{langx|odt|wer}}, {{langx|got|waír}}, {{langx|ofs|wer}}, {{langx|osx|wer}}, {{langx|goh|wer}}, {{langx|non|verr}}).

In Anglo-Saxon law wer was the value of a man's life. He could be required to pay his wer to the king as a penalty for crime.{{cite book |last=Molyneaux|first=George|title=The Formation of the English Kingdom in the Tenth Century|page=72|year=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, UK|isbn=978-0-19-871791-1}} If he was murdered then his relatives were entitled to his wergild as compensation from the murderer.