weird

Etymology

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. Weird was obsolete by the 16th century in English. It survived in Middle Scots, whence Shakespeare borrowed it in naming the Weird Sisters (original spelling 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.

adj

1. Having an unusually strange character or behaviour.
   There are lots of weird people in this place.
2. Deviating from the normal; bizarre.
   It was quite weird to bump into all my ex-girlfriends on the same day.
3. Relating to weird fiction ("a macabre subgenre of speculative fiction").
   a weird story
   In his introduction to the 1955 volume, [Ray] Bradbury singles out these stories as oddities in his canon — he wrote this kind of tale before his twenty-sixth birthday (1946), and rarely since. They are pure fantasy of the "weird" sort and include some of Bradbury's most striking pieces: "The Scythe" (1943), "The Lake" (1944), "The Jar" (1944), "Skeleton" (1945), and "The Small Assassin" (1946) 1978, Jeffrey Helterman, Richard Layman, editors, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 2: American Novelists Since World War II, Detroit, M.A.: Gale Research Company, page 62, column 1
4. (archaic) Of or pertaining to the Fates.
5. (archaic) Connected with fate or destiny; able to influence fate.
6. (archaic) Of or pertaining to witches or witchcraft; supernatural; unearthly; suggestive of witches, witchcraft, or unearthliness; wild; uncanny.
   It may be in that dark hour at the burn-foot, before the spate caught her, she had been given grace to resist her adversary and fling herself upon God's mercy. And it would seem that it had been granted; for when he came to the Skerburnfoot, there in the corner sat the weird wife Alison, dead as a stone. 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
   Naphtha lamps shed a weird light over a busy scene, for the work was being continued night and day. A score or so of sturdy navvies were shovelling and picking along the track. 1912, Victor Whitechurch, Thrilling Stories of the Railway
7. (archaic) Having supernatural or preternatural power.
   There was a weird light shining above the hill.

noun

1. (archaic) Fate; destiny; luck.
   Step by reluctant step, he had come to know his weird. The North must be saved from her. 1965, Poul Anderson, The Corridors of Time, page 226
   In the weird of death shall the hapless be whelmed, and from Doom’s dark prison Shall she steal forth never again. 1912, Arthur S. Way, transl., Medea, Heinemenn, translation of original by Euripides, published 1946, page 361
2. A prediction.
3. (obsolete, Scotland) A spell or charm.
4. That which comes to pass; a fact.
5. (archaic, in the plural, personification) The Fates.
6. (informal) 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. 2019, Justin Blackburn, The Bisexual Christian Suburban Failure Enlightening Bipolar Blues, page 33

verb

1. (transitive) To destine; doom; change by witchcraft or sorcery.
2. (transitive) To warn solemnly; adjure.

adv

1. (nonstandard) 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. 1972, Edwin Shrake, Strange Peaches: A Novel
   Man, you're talking weird! 1974, Vernard Eller, The Most Revealing Book of the Bible: Making Sense Out of Revelation