As it were...

[Perry Lassiter]

In today's good word, you mentioned the phrase "all be it" as making little sense. That triggered a reminder that I have always puzzled over "as it were..." In some cases adding "if" (as if it were) helps, but not always. Any suggestions to clarify the source and meaning of this phrase?

[Perry]

“As it were”—a curious, parenthetic phrase. As if it were so. A phrase used “to indicate that a word or statement is perhaps not formally exact though practically right” (OED). The mood is subjunctive. One would say it, if only he could mean it.

Maybe more informationthan you sought, as it were.