| 释义 |
▪ I. weird, n.|wɪəd|
Forms: 1 wyrd, 3–5 wird, (4 wired, 5 wirid), wirde, 4–5 wyrde; 4 wyerde, wierde, 4–6 werd (5 werid), werde, 4– weird (5 Sc. veird), 7–8 (9 Sc.) wierd; Sc. 6 waird, 6–7 weard, 8 weerd.
[OE. wyrd fem., = OS. wurd (pl. wurdi), OHG. wurt, ON. urð-r, from the weak grade of the stem werþ-, warþ-, wurþ- to become: see worth v.
The word is common in OE., but wanting in ME. until c 1300, and then occurs chiefly in northern texts, though employed also by Chaucer, Gower, and Langland. The normal later and modern form would have been wird, and the substitution of werd, wērd (which is natural in south-eastern ME.) is difficult to account for in the northern dialects. In senses now current the word is either Scottish or archaic (chiefly under the influence of Scottish writers).]
1. The principle, power, or agency by which events are predetermined; fate, destiny.
Beowulf 455 Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel. Ibid. 477 Hie wyrd forsweop on Grendles gryre. c888ælfred Boeth. xxxix. §5 Ac þæt þæt we wyrd hatað, þæt bið Godes weorc þæt he ælce dæᵹ wyrcð. a1000Seafarer 115 Wyrd biþ swiðre, meotud meahtiᵹra, þonne ænᵹes monnes ᵹehyᵹd. 13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 249 What wyrde has hyder my iuel vayned. 13..Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 2134 Worþe hit wele, oþer wo, as þe wyrde lykez hit hafe. a1400–50Wars Alex. 443 Þat sygnyfys þe same man þat sett is, be wird, So many prouynce to pas. c1470Henry Wallace ix. 244 As werd will wyrk, thi fortoun mon thou tak. c1585Montgomerie Sonn. xxxiii. 1 Vhom suld I warie bot my wicked weard, Vha span my thriftles thrauard fatall threed? 1603Philotus c, Quhat wickit weird hes wrocht our wo? [1895W. Morris Beowulf 16 Weird wends as she willeth. Ibid. 17 Weird swept them away.]
b. Magical power, enchantment.
1813Hogg Queen's Wake 79 He heard the world of awsome weird, And he saw their deedis of synn.
2. pl. The Fates, the three goddesses supposed to determine the course of human life.
c725Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) P. 15 Parcae, wyrde. c1385Chaucer L.G.W. 19 Hypermnestra The werdys that we clepyn destene Hath shapyn hire that she mot nedis be Pyetous sad. c1450Crt. of Love 1173, I mene, the three of fatall destinè, That be our werdes. 1483Cath. Angl. 420/2 Wyrdis, parce. 1513Douglas æneis i. i. 30 Gif werdis war nocht contrair [si qua fata sinant]. 1547Surrey æneis iv. 581 (Roxb.) F iij, The werdes withstande [fata obstant]. a1585Montgomerie Flyting 326 ‘Woe worth’, quoth the Weirds, ‘the wights that thee wroght!’ 1632Lithgow Trav. i. 5 And whilst from Phleg'ran fields, the weirds me call, I in Elisean plaines, am forc'd to fall. 1722Ramsay Three Bonnets ii. 13 Ye're grown sae braw: now weirds defend me! 1855Singleton Virgil I. 29 ‘Career ye on,’ Have to their spindles cried..the Weirds [Parcae].
b. One pretending or supposed to have the power to foresee and to control future events; a witch or wizard, a soothsayer.
1625Heylin Microcosmos (ed. 2) 509 These two..were mette by three Fairies, or Witches (Weirds the Scots call them). 1654Vilvain Enchir. Epigr. ii. lxxx, The 2 Scots courtiers who met three Wierds or Witches which foretold their fortune. 1682C. Irvine Hist. Scot. Nomencl. 12 Arioli. Weards, Sooth-sayers, or Second-sighted-men. 1834A. Smart Rambling Rhymes 164 Puir auld wives..Were seized in Superstition's clutches, An' brunt to death for wierds an' witches. 1899J. Spence Shetland Folk-lore 143 With this green nettle And cross of metal I witches and wierds defy.
3. That which is destined or fated to happen to a particular person, etc.; what one will do or suffer; one's appointed lot or fortune, destiny.
Often in to dree one's weird: see dree v. 2 c.
c725Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) S 433 Sortem, wyrd, condicionem. c888ælfred Boeth. xl. §1 Ic wille secᵹan þæt ælc wyrd bio good, sam hio monnum good þinc, sam hio him yfel þince. a1300Cursor M. 3453 Strang weird was giuen to þam o were þat þai moght noght þair strif for-bere. Ibid. 9968 Had neuer womman sa blisful wird..As maria maiden. 13..Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 2418 Dalyda dalt hym hys wyrde. c1400Ant. Arthur xvi. (Irel. MS.) ‘Ways me for thy wirde!’ cothe Waynor. c1450St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 4680 Þai grett, þai sorowed þair sary werde. c1470Henry Wallace iv. 761 My waryed werd in warld I mon fullfill. 1535Stewart Cron. Scot. I. 109 Euerie ladie passit hame..Weipand full soir and wareand hir werd. 1563Sackville Induct. Mirr. Mag. lxiii, It made myne iyes in very teares consume: When I beheld the wofull werd befall, That by the wrathful wyl of Gods was come. a1600Montgomerie Misc. Poems xlvi. 31 They haif wroght my weird Vnhappiest on eird. 1718Ramsay Christ's Kirk Gr. iii. viii, It's a wise wife that kens her weird. a1774Fergusson On Seeing Butterfly Poems (1845) 18 Those Whose weird is still to creep, alas! Unnoticed, 'mang the humble grass. 1795Burns ‘O tell na me’ iii, Let simple maid the lesson read, The weird may be her ain. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xii, My weird maun be fulfilled, Mr. Butler. 1892J. A. Henderson Ann. Lower Deeside 79 The weird of this kirk is that it will fall in time of worship. 1909Belloc Marie Antoinette 255 It was one more of those hammer-blows of Fate exactly coincident with the sequence of the Queen's weird.
b. pl. (often in reference to a single person).
a1300Cursor M. 15279 Þe gait it es al graid, He mai sai wirdes warid Þat forwit him es laid. 1320–30Horn Ch. 456 Wiif thai toke, and duelled thare; In Inglond com thai no mare, Her werdes for to bide. c1340Hampole Psalter lxxiv. 5 Sum says it was my werdis; sum says the sterne of my birth gert me syn. c1374Chaucer Boeth. i. met. i. (1886) 1 The sorful wierdes of me olde man [maesti mea fata senis]. 1390Gower Conf. II. 94 Whan thei at mi nativite My weerdes setten as thei wolde. 1393Langl. P. Pl. C. iv. 241 As hus werdes [v.r. wirdus] were ordeined. 1423Jas. I Kingis Q. ix, So vncouthly hir werdes sche deuideth. c1470Harding Chron. lxxxv. iv, Fortune, false executryse of weerdes [= Chaucer Troylus iii. 617], That euermore..To all debates thou strongly so enherdes. 1571Sir J. Maitland in Satir. Poems Reform. xxvii. 102 Then warreitt war thy weirdis and wanhap. 1579Sc. Acts Jas. VI (1814) III. 140/1 That they can tell þair weardis deathis & fortunes.
c. spec. An evil fate inflicted by supernatural power, esp. by way of retribution.
[a1300Cursor M. 8981 Bot hard it es, þe wird o sin þat yarked was til adam kin!] 1874‘Ouida’ Two little Wooden Shoes 132 Swallows do not tell their secrets. They have the weird of Procne on them all. 1877Trench Lect. Med. Ch. Hist. 178 But a weird was upon him and upon his race. 1885J. Ingelow Sleep of Sigismund 7 The weird is on him to grope in the dark with endless Weariful feet for a goal that shifteth still.
4. a. A happening, event, occurrence.
Prov. after word comes weird, the mention of a thing is followed by its occurrence or appearance.
a900Cynewulf's Christ 81 Ne we þære wyrde wenan þurfon toweard in tide. 971Blickl. Hom. 221 Þa ᵹelamp wundorlic wyrd þæt se leᵹ ongan slean & brecan onᵹean þone wind. 1390Gower Conf. I. 340 It were a wonder wierde To sen a king become an hierde. c1450St. Cuthbert 5459 It befell þis wondir werde. 1721J. Kelly Sc. Prov. 2 After Word comes Weird; fair fall them that call me Madam. 1883Hall Caine Shadow Crime xxxvi, Weel, weel; after word comes weird. That's why the constables are gone, and that's why Robbie's come.
b. That which is destined or fated to happen; predetermined events collectively.
c1470Golagros & Gaw. 1082 Thair wil nane wyis, that ar wis, wary the werd. 1513Douglas æneis iii. vii. 48 Bot we from werd to werd and chance mon wend. 1876W. Morris Sigurd i. 3 A tale that the elders have told, A story of weird and of woe.
5.
†a. A decree (of a god). Obs.
a1400–50Wars Alex. 270 Þe werdes Of my gracious goddis, þe grettest on erde. 1513Douglas æneis xii. xii. 202 And thou, Tellus, mast nobill God of erd, Hald fast the speris hed by ȝour werd.
†b. An omen or token significant of the nature of a future event; a prognostic. Obs.
1513Douglas æneis xii. xiii. 150 Jove..bad hir hald doun baldly to the erd, For to resist Juturnais ire and werd [L. omen]. 1533Bellenden Livy (S.T.S.) II. 233 Þe senat..said þai acceppit þe weird þat followit one þir wourdis.
c. A prediction of the fate which is to happen to a person; etc.; a prophecy.
1785Poems Buchan Dial. 18 Altho' his mither, in her weirds, Foretald his death at Troy. 1802C. Gray Poems (1811) 73 Then, as to his fortin tellin',..he ne'er liket to be sellin' His weird for wind.
d. A supernatural or marvellous occurrence or tale.
1814W. Nicholson Poet. Wks. (1897) 40 [She] Could tell her tale or lilt her sang,..Wi' weirds and witcheries aft atween, And unco sights that some had seen. a1859A. Tait in Jas. Watson Living Bards of Border 151 What legends and weirds these fair scenes still awaken.
6. Comb., as weird-fixed, weird-set adjs.; weird-licht Sc. the light of destiny; † weird-man, a seer; weird-woman, a witch.
1819W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 181 Now was come the *weird-fix't hour Ordain'd to break the Papish power.
1844W. Thom Rhymes & Recoll. 54 There's a bricht e'e looks love to me, Like the *weird licht o'er me shining.
1806Jamieson Pop. Ballads I. 238 ‘Dire is the doom’, the *wierd-man said; ‘Nae mair, O lady, speir!’
1819W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 46 The *weird-set day begins to daw.
1845J. E. Carpenter Poems & Lyrics 34 The *weird-woman had stol'n away.
▪ II. weird, a.|wɪəd|
Also 5 wyrde, 5–6 Sc. werd(e, 6 veird, 7 weyard (weyward), weer'd, 8 weïrd, 9 weerd.
[Originally an attrib. use of prec. in weird sisters (see sense 1), the later currency and adjectival use being derived from the occurrence of this in the story of Macbeth.
The evolution of the forms found in Shakespeare's Macbeth was app. from *weyrd to weyard (retained in Acts iii and iv in the First Folio) and weyward (used in Acts i and ii); the latter was no doubt due to association with wayward, a word used many times by Shakespeare. (The later folios retain the weyward spelling, and alter the other to this or to wizard.) In several passages the prosody clearly requires the word to be pronounced as two syllables; hence Theobald's use of the diæresis in his emendation weïrd (see quot. 1733 below), giving rise to the scansion of quot. 1755 in sense 1, and quot. 1820 in sense 4.]
1. Having the power to control the fate or destiny of human beings, etc.; later, claiming the supernatural power of dealing with fate or destiny.
Originally in the Weird Sisters = † (a) the Fates; (b) the witches in Macbeth.
c1400Sc. Trojan War ii. 2818 Vþeris said sche was, I trow, A werde-sister, I wait neuir how. c1420Wyntoun Cron. vi. xviii. 1862 Þa women þan thoucht he Thre werd systeris mast lyk to be. c1475Cath. Angl. 420/2 (Addit. MS.) Wyrde systres, parce. 1513Douglas æneis v. xiii. 74 Admit myne asking, gif so the fatis gidis,..Or ȝit werd sisteris list gif thaim that cuntre. 1549Compl. Scot. vi. (1872) 64 The tail of the three veird systirs. 1577Holinshed Hist. Scot. 243/2 marg., The prophesie of three women supposing to be the weird sisters or feiries. 1605Shakes. Macb. i. iii. 32 The weyward Sisters, hand in hand,..Thus doe goe, about, about. Ibid. iii. i. 2 Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all, As the weyard Women promis'd. Ibid. iii. iv. 133, I will to morrow..to the weyard Sisters. a1693Urquhart's Rabelais iii. xxviii. 237 The weer'd Sister Parques. 1733Theobald Shaks. Macb. i. iii. note, In every passage..my Emendation must be embraced and we must read weïrd [ed. 1740 Wierd, or Weïrd]. 1755J. G. Cooper Tomb Shaks. 99 Where three swart sisters of the weïrd band Were mutt'ring curses to the troublous wind. 1765Birth of St. George 47 in Percy Reliq. III. 218 To the weïrd lady of the woods He purpos'd to repaire. 1807–8W. Irving Salmagundi (1824) 129 He had rather see one of the weird sisters flourish through his key-hole on a broom-stick. 1820Shelley Let. Maria Gisborne 106 And here, like some weird Archimage sit I, Plotting dark spells. a1854H. Reed Lect. Brit. Poets v. (1857) 189 The weird woman with beards meet to seal the deep damnation of their victim.
2. a. Partaking of or suggestive of the supernatural; of a mysterious or unearthly character; unaccountably or uncomfortably strange; uncanny.
1817Shelley Rev. Islam ix. viii, Some said, I was a fiend from my weird cave, Who had stolen human shape. 1820― Witch Atlas 670 It is A tale more fit for the weird winter nights Than for these garish summer days. 1835Lytton Rienzi i. xii, This solitude has something in it weird and awful. 1847Tennyson Princess i. 14 Myself too had weird seizures, Heaven knows what. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. i. i, Both men then looked with a weird unholy interest at the wake of Gaffer's boat. 1878Lucy Diary Two Parl. (1885) I. 393, I hear a weird story in connection with the private history of the family.
absol.1888Daily News 30 Aug. 4/7 Miss Seward, according to Sir Walter Scott, was a mistress of the weird in oral narrative. 1899Sir G. Douglas James Hogg v. 101 Unlike the German's, Hogg's ‘weird’ is seldom or never morbid, fevered, hectic.
b. of sounds or voices.
1815Shelley Alastor 30 In lone and silent hours, When night makes a weird sound of its own stillness. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. ii. 11 The weird rattle of the débris which fell at intervals. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. ii. i, The person of the house gave a weird little laugh here. 1876Smiles Sc. Natur. vi. 100 He was awakened by a weird and unearthly moaning.
3. Of strange or unusual appearance, odd-looking.
1815Shelley Alastor 448 Mutable As shapes in the weird clouds. 1861H. Macmillan Footn. Page Nat. 23 The soft yielding carpets of greenest verdure and weirdest patterns, woven by these tiny plants on the floor of shadowy old forests. 1865Kingsley Herew. Prel., He begins to people the weird places of the earth with weird beings. 1907Bp. A. Robertson in Trans. Devon Assoc. 53 Bampfylde Moore Carew, King of the Gipsies, [not] the only weird, extravagant figure that has moved across Devon's stage.
4. a. Out of the ordinary course, strange, unusual; hence, odd, fantastic. (Freq. in recent use.)
1820Keats Lamia i. 107, I..bade her steep Her hair in weïrd syrops, that would keep Her loveliness invisible. 1849Lytton K. Arthur ii. xxxvi, The prophet up the plain, Gathering weird simples, pass'd. 1855Dickens Holly-Tree i, He was a man with a weird belief in him that no one could count the stones of Stonehenge twice, and make the same number of them. 1912Eng. Hist. Rev. Oct. 833 The ‘Guacciadim’ of p. 140 is a weird misprint for Guicciardini.
b. Colloq. phr. weird and wonderful, marvellous in a strange or eccentric way; both remarkable and peculiar or unfathomable; exotic, outlandish. Freq. ironical or derog.
1859J. H. Stirling in Meliora Oct. 231 These [poems] are doubtless meant to be very weird and wonderful, but they are mere breath, and..barren as the wind. 1886O. Wilde in Pall Mall Gaz. 1 Feb. 5/1 There is psychology of a weird and wonderful kind. 1908T. E. Lawrence Let. 9 Aug. (1954) 70 Their food is weird and wonderful. 1946Visct. Knebworth Boxing xiv. 176 The beginner so often gets the idea that he is going to do the most weird and wonderful movements. 1962Friend 3 Aug. 947/1 Nearly all the weird and wonderful decorations were provided by a decorator member of the club. 1978S. Naipaul North of South ii. vi. 227 A weird and wonderful place is Jo'burg.
5. Comb., as weird-looking adj.
1862[Eliz. Johnston] Gifts & Graces xix. 184 All the trees grim and shadowy, every familiar object weird-looking. 1867Q. Rev. Oct. 437 The Prophet first pointed out a weird-looking creature, a turnkey. 1888F. Hume Mme. Midas i. Prol., A cruel, weird-looking scene, fantastic, unreal, and bizarre as one of Doré's marvellous conceptions.
▪ III. weird, v. Sc. and † north.|wɪəd|
Also 4 weirrd, werd, wired, wiird, 6 waird, 8 weerd, 9 wierd; 7 pa. pple. weard.
[f. weird n.]
1. trans. To preordain by the decree of fate; esp. in pass. to be destined or divinely appointed to, into, or unto (with inf. or n.).
a1300Cursor M. 23368 Ne hert mai think þaa ioies sere, þat iesus crist has dight til his, þat weirrded er vnto þe bliss. Ibid. 25225 All þe men þat werded es for to be broght into þi blis. 1678Ray Prov. (ed. 2) 360 (Sc. Prov.) A man may wooe where he will, but he will wed where he is weard [ed. 1, where his hap is]. 1742R. Forbes Ajax Sp. (1755) 14 These darts that weerded were To tak the town o' Troy. 1885J. Lumsden Rural Rhymes 236 Gin the gude Mr. Hootsman is weirdit to be married a third time neist week.
2. To assign to (a person) as his fate; to apportion as one's destiny or lot.
c1550Clariodus (Maitl. Club) i. 1030 The Waird Sisteris..wairdit me, gif ane knave chyld war I, That efter I was sevin ȝeiris old To be transformit in ane lyoun bold. a1800Kempion iii. in Scott Minstrelsy (1802) II. 93, I weird ye to a fiery beast, And relieved sall ye never be, Till [etc.]. 1806Jamieson Pop. Ballads I. 238 Say..what the doom sae dire, that thou Doest wierd to mine or me? a1869C. Spence Fr. Braes of Carse (1898) 182 A lesson teaching poor and rich That nane should weird ill to a witch.
3. To warn or advise by the knowledge of coming fate.
1806Jamieson Pop. Ballads I. 237, I wierd ye, gangna there! Ibid. II. 174, I weird thee, to lat me be were best.
Hence ˈweirded ppl. a.; ˈweirding vbl. n. in Comb. weirding peas, peas employed in divination.
1804W. Tarras Poems 68 Jock Din is to the yard right sly, To saw his wierdin piz. 1820Scott Monast. xvii, Say, what hath forged thy wierded [footn. fated] link of destiny with the House of Avenel?
▸ trans. slang (chiefly U.S.). to weird out: to induce a sense of discomfort, alienation, strangeness, etc., in; to make anxiously uncomfortable. Freq. in pa. pple. Cf. weirded out adj.
1970P. de Lissovoy Feelgood 177 It was weirding her out to have me around as a member of the house. 1979L. Bangs Psychotic Reactions (1987) 285, I complained I was getting weirded out around other people because I never saw 'em because all I did was lay in bed with the covers over my head. 1990San Francisco Chron. 7 Mar. e12/4 All he says is that the idea of two men Doing It really weirds him out—but..these remarks might be seen as encouraging..homophobia. 2002N.Y. Times Mag. 16 June 51/3 I've been raising goats for years, I love them, so at first the idea of making them secrete spider silk kind of weirded me out. |