weird
adjEtymology
From 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”). Doublet of wyrd. More at worth. Obsolete by the 16th century in English, but reintroduced from Middle Scots weird, whence Shakespeare borrowed it in naming the Weird Sisters (originally Weyward Sisters, the Three Witches), reintroducing it to English. The senses “abnormal”, “strange” etc. arose via reinterpretation of Weird Sisters and date from after this reintroduction.
Definitions
Having an unusually strange character or behaviour.
- There are lots of weird people in this place.
Deviating from the normal
Deviating from the normal; bizarre.
- It was quite weird to bump into all my ex-girlfriends on the same day.
- It was weird for him to watch boys play with Barbie dolls.
- The best recent VC discs start from the relentlessness of gabber and digital hardcore, and yank it in a weirder direction.
Relating to weird fiction ("a macabre subgenre of speculative fiction").
- a weird story
›+ 14 more definitionsshow fewer
Of or pertaining to the Fates.
Connected with fate or destiny
Connected with fate or destiny; able to influence fate.
Of or pertaining to witches or witchcraft
Of or pertaining to witches or witchcraft; supernatural; unearthly; suggestive of witches, witchcraft, or unearthliness; wild; uncanny.
- Whiles I ſtood rapt in the wonder of it, came Miſſiues from the King, who all-hail'd me Thane of Cawdor, by which Title before, these weyward Sisters saluted me, and referr'd me to the comming on of time, with haile, King that ſhalt be.
- Those sweet, low tones, that seemed like a weird incantation.
Having supernatural or preternatural power.
- There was a weird light shining above the hill.
Fate
Fate; destiny; luck.
- Step by reluctant step, he had come to know his weird. The North must be saved from her.
- In the weird of death shall the hapless be whelmed, and from Doom’s dark prison Shall she steal forth never again.
A prediction.
A spell or charm.
- Thou shalt bear thy penance lone, / In the Valley of Saint John, / And this weird shall overtake thee;— / Sleep, until a knight shall wake thee, / For feat of arms as far renowned / As warrior of the Table Round.
That which comes to pass
That which comes to pass; a fact.
The Fates.
Weirdness.
- You know why it feels so good to be amongst real friends? They allow you to be your weird and love you for it. Imagine how it would feel to freely let your weird out and have the world love you for it.
To destine
To destine; doom; change by witchcraft or sorcery.
To warn solemnly
To warn solemnly; adjure.
In a strange manner.
- I waltzed into that club just as straight as a goose and I kept tripping over things and people were looking at me weird.
- Man, you're talking weird!
Acronym of Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic.
- WEIRD societies
- Our examination of the representativeness of WEIRD subjects is necessarily restricted to the rather limited database currently available.
- Perhaps one of the more striking distinctions between WEIRD societies and non-WEIRD societies (what Henrich, Heine, and Norenzayan call small-scale societies in their paper) is a distinction in visual perception processes.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for weird. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA