Etymograph

English

weird

Weird comes from Middle English werde ‘a predetermined or predestined event’, from Old English wyrd ‘fate’, from Proto-Germanic *wurdiz ‘fate’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wert- ‘to turn’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wert-‘to turn’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*wr̥tísreconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wurdiz‘fate’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wurdi‘fate’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150wyrd‘fate’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500werde‘a predetermined or predestined event’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1606weird

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wert-‘to turn’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*wr̥tísreconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wurdiz‘fate’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wurdi‘fate’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150wyrd‘fate’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500werde‘a predetermined or predestined event’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1606weird

Earliest quotation: c. 1606, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Macbeth: “Whiles I ſtood rapt in the wonder of it,…”

The story

Obsolete by the 16th century in English, it was reintroduced by Shakespeare, who borrowed Middle Scots weird as weyward in the name of the Weyward Sisters (later respelt as Weird Sisters), meaning “Sisters of Fate”. The senses “abnormal”, “strange” etc., arising from a reinterpretatation of the Sisters' naming, are posterior to his borrowing.

Linked words

pairs

  • weird and verse both from Proto-Indo-European *wert- ‘to turn’

through Proto-Indo-European *wert- ‘to turn, wind’

university, worth, version, word, conversation, universe, ridiculous, divorce, diversity, versus, diverse, vertical, advertisement, versatile, convertible, vortex, advert, divert, adversity, revert, ridicule, pervert, diversification, vertex, vertigo, avert, vert, derision, verso, deride, derisive, perversity, wurst, 73 more

Today it means

adj Having an unusually strange character or behaviour.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *wert- / weird

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