Word of the Day: Weird
Recently, my nephew expressed that some of the his classmates called him weird. This is something many hear in childhood and throughout life when we are perceived as different. When something feels abnormal or strange we might say, “That’s weird.” We may even hear it used as an insult, to make others feel ostracized.
Another friend who is going through a break up expressed that the process is feeling “so weird.” This prompted me to revisit the etymology of the word to offer insight. Let’s explore the true meaning of weirdness.
weird (adjective) : very strange and unusual, unexpected, or not natural
Weird comes from the Old English word wyrd meaning “fate, chance, fortune, destiny.” In archaic Scottish wyrd would be used as an adjective to describe something connected with fate or a noun meaning “a person’s destiny.” Other related words are the Proto-Germanic root word wurthiz, Old High German wurt, and Old Norse urðr. All of these words have meanings connected to fate.
The PIE root origins are *wert- meaning “to turn, to wind” and *wer- meaning “to turn, to bend.” This meaning of turning and bending evolved into a meaning of fate. Think of the phrase “turn into” which means become. As time bends and turns we become what we are destined to be.
The word weird came to mean strange, in the sense that we often use it today, due to it’s association with the Fates or Norns and the Weird Sisters. In Norse mythology the Norns are a trio of powerful women who control fate. They are similar to the Greek Fates aka Moirai, three goddesses of fate and destiny.
The Weird Sisters or Three Witches are characters from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In Macbeth the three witches represented the past, present, and future. They foreshadow events to come in Macbeth’s journey. In productions of the play the Weird Sisters were often depicted as being strange and scary in appearance, especially in the 18th and 19th century. This is believed to be the origin of the association with the word weird and strangeness or things that are unnatural and unusual.
Weird was sometimes also used in the 19th century to mean “change by witchcraft” or “predestined.”
I love the word weird. The Weird Sisters were always my favorite characters in Macbeth. I was drawn to the magic of their predictions and the wisdom of fate. While living in Scotland I made frequent trips to the Birnam Oak near the river Tay in Birnam, Perthshire. It is thought to be one of the oldest trees still remaining from the Birnam Wood, which plays a key part in the prophecy told by the three witches.
I learned a phrase in Scotland which is “dree one’s weird.” It means to surrender to one’s fate. Dree means to endure.
As I mentioned earlier, a friend recently said in reference to her break up, “this process is so weird.” We learn from etymology that another way to express this may be, “this process is so destined.” Fate is turning her in another direction.
The next time we hear someone labeled as weird, we may take it as an invitation to observe the magic they are embodying. If we feel weird we might ask ourselves, “what am I becoming? where is fate leading me?”
There is wonder in weirdness. If we experience or witness something that feels strange or uncanny, remember that the word weird is rooted in the magic of destiny and fate. What are you destined to become?
