What is another word for "was"?

Roget's Thesaurus (1911) lists these synonyms for "was": abandon, abandonment, abjure, abrogation, academician, academist, accord, admirable, all, and, antiquarian, antiquary, archaeologist, argument, autocratic, avast, back, bibliomaniac, bibliophile, bid, bigwig, bluestocking, bookworm, break, casual, cave, cease, cessation, cession, choice, clerk, connoisseur, day, defection, deliberately, depart, desert, desertion, desist, desuetude.