weird

英文词源

weird

weird: [OE] Originally, weird was a noun, meaning ‘fate, destiny’. Etymologically it denoted ‘that which comes about’: for it was derived from the same base which produced the now obsolete English verb worth ‘come to be, become’ (a relative of German werden ‘become’). It was used adjectivally in Middle English in the sense ‘having power to control fate’ (which is where the weird sisters who confronted Macbeth come in), but the modern sense ‘uncanny’ did not emerge until the early 19th century, inspired by, but taking semantic liberties with, Shakespeare’s use of the word.
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weird (adj.)

c. 1400, "having power to control fate, from wierd (n.), from Old English wyrd "fate, chance, fortune; destiny; the Fates," literally "that which comes," from Proto-Germanic *wurthiz (cognates: Old Saxon wurd, Old High German wurt "fate," Old Norse urðr "fate, one of the three Norns"), from PIE *wert- "to turn, to wind," (cognates: German werden, Old English weorðan "to become"), from root *wer- (3) "to turn, bend" (see versus). For sense development from "turning" to "becoming," compare phrase turn into "become."

The sense "uncanny, supernatural" developed from Middle English use of weird sisters for the three fates or Norns (in Germanic mythology), the goddesses who controlled human destiny. They were portrayed as odd or frightening in appearance, as in "Macbeth" (and especially in 18th and 19th century productions of it), which led to the adjectival meaning "odd-looking, uncanny" (1815); "odd, strange, disturbingly different" (1820). Related: Weirdly; weirdness.