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Etymology of "As it were"

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  • 13-02-2015 8:34pm
    #1
    Yearning4Stormy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 129 ✭✭


    Hi, folks,

    This is quite random, but it's been irritating me and I cannot find anything useful on the intertubes.

    I've been listening to Bill Bryson's Short History and he is quite fond of the phrase, "as it were". Now, the etymology of this phrase, as far as the intertubes goes, is that it's synonymous with, "so to speak". I don't have a problem with that. What I don't understand is why there's a singular pronoun and plural verb? Even though, "as it was" doesn't sound right in any context!

    Edit: Duuuuh, after typing all of that and doing some more research, I believe it's the subjunctive case. Every day's a learning day :)
    "If I were a rich man, ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum."
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_subjunctive

    Any other examples of strange sentence structures that are technically correct?

    Thanks!


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