weird
/wɪəd
/- I have managed to unearth yet more weird and almost unbelievable tales from this strange civilisation.
- Thousands of people have experienced mysterious lights and weird sounds above the ancient fort at Cley Hill during the past 40 years.
- It was called the ‘Black Hole’ and was as dark and weird as its name suggests.
Synonyms
- I love that I can experience different, strange, weird and wonderful things wherever I go.
- Hundreds of bargain hunters flocked to Leeds at the weekend to snap up the uniquely weird and wonderful outfits being sold by Opera North's costume department.
- We're going to see some fairly weird and wonderful looking footwear.
Synonyms
- I am receiving SMS's and phone calls (which I am not answering) that are completely weirding me out.
- Let's ignore for a moment the fact that it is my 28th Birthday today, and that I am completely weirded out by that.
- It's so… well… to be completely honest with you… I'm completely weirded out by it.
Origin
Old English wyrd 'destiny', of Germanic origin. The adjective (late Middle English) originally meant 'having the power to control destiny', and was used especially in the Weird Sisters, originally referring to the Fates, later the witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth; the latter use gave rise to the sense 'unearthly' (early 19th century).
To the Anglo-Saxons weird was a noun, spelled wyrd and meaning ‘fate, destiny’. The Weirds were the Fates, the three Greek goddesses who presided over the birth and life of humans. The adjective originally meant ‘having the power to control destiny’, and was used especially from the Middle Ages in the Weird Sisters, for the Fates, and later also the witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth. The modern use, ‘very strange, bizarre’, as in weird and wonderful, dates from the early 19th century.