verbTo destine; doom; change by witchcraft or sorcery. · To warn solemnly; adjure.
nounFate; destiny; luck. · A prediction. · A spell or charm. · That which comes to pass; a fact.
adjHaving an unusually strange character or behaviour. · Deviating from the normal; bizarre. · Relating to weird fiction ("a macabre subgenre of speculative fiction"). · Belonging, pertaining, or related to fate, destiny, or to the Fates; able to influence fate.
Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventoryFrom Middle English werde, wierde, wirde, wyrede, wurde, from Old English wyrd (“fate”), from Proto-West Germanic *wurdi, from Proto-Germanic *wurdiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn, wind”). Cognate with Icelandic urður (“fate”). Related to Old English weorþan (“to become”); more at worth (verb).
Doublet of wyrd, a reborrowing of the original sense and spelling.
Obsolete by the 16th century in standard English. Its reintroduction is due to Shakespeare, who borrowed Middle Scots weird sisters, denoting the Fates of classical mythology, for the witches in his play Macbeth. Though originally a noun in this context, it was subsequently reinterpreted as an adjective meaning “supernatural” or “uncanny”. The sense “strange” is a development of this.
This page abbreviates 4 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "root",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*wert-"
},
"expansion": ""
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "werde"
},
"expansion": "Middle English werde"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ang",
"3": "wyrd",
"4": "",
"5": "fate"
},
"expansion": "Old English wyrd (“fate”)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gmw-pro",
"3": "*wurdi"
},
"expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *wurdi"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gem-pro",
"3": "*wurdiz"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Germanic *wurdiz"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "ine-pro",
"3": "*wert-",
"4": "",
"5": "to turn, wind"
},
"expansion": "Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn, wind”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "is",
"2": "urður",
"3": "",
"4": "fate"
},
"expansion": "Icelandic urður (“fate”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "ang",
"2": "weorþan",
"3": "",
"4": "to become"
},
"expansion": "Old English weorþan (“to become”)"
},
{
"name": "doublet",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "wyrd"
},
"expansion": "Doublet of wyrd"
},
{
"name": "m+",
"args": {
"1": "gmw-msc",
"2": "weird sister",
"3": "weird sisters"
},
"expansion": "Middle Scots weird sisters"
}
],
"links": [
[
"werde",
"werde#Middle_English"
],
[
"wierde",
"wierde#Middle_English"
],
[
"wirde",
"wirde#Middle_English"
],
[
"wyrede",
"wyrede#Middle_English"
],
[
"wurde",
"wurde#Middle_English"
],
[
"wyrd",
"wyrd#Old_English"
],
[
"*wurdi",
"Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/wurdi"
],
[
"*wurdiz",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/wurdiz"
],
[
"*wert-",
"Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/wert-"
],
[
"urður",
"urður#Icelandic"
],
[
"weorþan",
"weorþan#Old_English"
],
[
"worth",
"worth#Etymology_2"
],
[
"wyrd",
"wyrd#English"
],
[
"weird sisters",
"weird sister#Middle_Scots"
],
[
"Fates",
"Fates"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
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{
"pos": "verb",
"glosses": [
"To destine; doom; change by witchcraft or sorcery.",
"To warn solemnly; adjure."
],
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"pos": "noun",
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"Fate; destiny; luck.",
"A prediction.",
"A spell or charm.",
"That which comes to pass; a fact."
],
"tags": [
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"countable",
"uncountable",
"Scotland",
"obsolete"
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{
"pos": "adv",
"glosses": [
"In a strange manner."
],
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{
"pos": "adj",
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"Having an unusually strange character or behaviour.",
"Deviating from the normal; bizarre.",
"Relating to weird fiction (\"a macabre subgenre of speculative fiction\").",
"Belonging, pertaining, or related to fate, destiny, or to the Fates; able to influence fate."
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