[ wɪəd ]
■ adjective
1》 suggesting something supernatural; uncanny.
↘ informal very strange; bizarre.
2》 archaic connected with fate.
■ noun archaic, chiefly Scottish a person's destiny.
■ verb ( ~ someone out ) N. Amer. informal induce a sense of disbelief or alienation in someone.
Derivatives
~ly adverb
~ness noun
Word History
In Old English ~ , then spelled wyrd , was a noun meaning 'destiny, fate', or, in the plural, 'the Fates' (the three goddesses supposed to determine the course of human life); it also meant 'an event or occurrence'. The adjective, first recorded in Middle English, meant 'having the power to control destiny', and was used especially in the phrase the Weird Sisters (originally meaning the Fates, later applied to the witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth ). The modern sense 'uncanny, strange' did not develop until the early 19th century.