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-1‘to turn’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wr̥tís1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wurdiz1‘fate’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wurdi1‘fate’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150wyrd1‘fate’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500werde1‘a predetermined or predestined event’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1606weird1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English weird
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1606, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Macbeth: “Whiles I ſtood rapt in the wonder of it,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wert-Wiktionary, English weird‘to turn’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wr̥tísWiktionary, English weirdreconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wurdizWiktionary, English weird‘fate’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wurdiWiktionary, English weird‘fate’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150wyrdWiktionary, English weird‘fate’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500werdeWiktionary, English weird‘a predetermined or predestined event’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1606weirdWiktionary, English weird. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 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.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with weird, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

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

  • university ← universite ← université ← universitei ← universitas
  • worth ← weorþ ← *werþ ← *werþaz
  • version ← versiō ← vertō ← *wertō
  • word ← worth ← worthen ← weorþan ← *werþan
  • conversation ← conversacioun ← conversacion ← conversātiōnem ← conversātiō
  • universe ← univers ← ūniversus ← versus ← vorsus
  • ridiculous ← rīdiculus ← rīdeō
  • divorce ← dīvortium ← dīvertere ← vertō ← *wertō
  • diversity ← diversite ← diversité ← dīversitās ← dīversus
  • versus ← vertō ← *wertō
  • diverse ← divers ← divers ← dīversus ← dīvertō
  • verse ← vers ← fers ← versus ← vertō

94 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

adj Having an unusually strange character or behaviour.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “weird”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

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