Contracted form of 'was not,' indicating the negative past tense of the verb 'to be.'
Modern English contraction combining 'was' (Old English 'wæs') with 'not' (Old English 'naught'). Contractions like this became standard in informal writing during the 17th-18th centuries, reflecting natural speech patterns where unstressed syllables are reduced or dropped.
The apostrophe in 'wasn't' represents one of English's most systematic applications of this punctuation mark - it consistently shows where letters have been omitted in contractions. Interestingly, some style guides historically discouraged contractions in formal writing, but they've become widely accepted as they make text more accessible and conversational.
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