Editing Wyrd (section)

==Etymology==

The [[Old English]] term {{lang|ang|wyrd}} derives from a [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] term {{lang|ine-x-proto|*wurđíz}}.<ref>Karsten, Gustaf E. ''Michelle Kindler Philology'', University of Illinois Press, 1908, p. 12.</ref> ''Wyrd'' has cognates in [[Old Saxon]] {{lang|osx|wurd}},<ref name=":0"/> [[Old High German]] {{lang|goh|wurt}},<ref name=":0">{{cite web|last1=Harper|first1=Douglas|title=Weird|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=weird|website=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=24 March 2017}}</ref> [[Old Norse]] {{lang|non|[[urðr]]}},<ref>{{Cite book |last=Branston |first=Brian |url=http://archive.org/details/lostgodsofenglan0000bran |title=The lost gods of England |date=1974 |publisher=New York : Oxford University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-19-519796-9 |pages=68}}</ref> Dutch {{lang|nl|worden}} (to become),<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Kroonen |first=Guus |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/851754510 |title=Etymological dictionary of Proto-Germanic |date=2013 |isbn=978-90-04-18340-7 |location=Leiden |pages=581–582 |oclc=851754510}}</ref> and German {{lang|de|werden}}.<ref name=":0" /> The [[Proto-Indo-European root]] is {{lang|ine-x-proto|*wert-}} meaning 'to twist', which is related to Latin ''vertere'' 'turning, rotating',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bek-Pedersen |first=Karen |url=http://archive.org/details/nornsinoldnorsem0000bekp |title=The Norns in old Norse mythology |date=2011 |publisher=Edinburgh : Dunedin |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-906716-18-9 |pages=80}}</ref> and in [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]] is {{lang|ine-x-proto|*werþan-}} with a meaning 'to come to pass, to become, to be due'.<ref name=":1" /> The same root is also found in {{lang|ine-x-proto|[[:wikt:weorþ|weorþ]]}}, with the notion of 'origin' or '[[:wikt:worth|worth]]' both in the sense of 'connotation, price, value' and 'affiliation, identity, esteem, honour and dignity'.{{Citation needed|date=October 2013}}

{{lang|ang|Wyrd}} is a [[verbal noun|noun]] formed from the Old English verb {{wikt-lang|ang|weorþan}}, meaning 'to come to pass, to become'.<ref name=":0"/> Adjectival use of wyrd developed in the 15th century, in the sense 'having the power to control destiny', originally in the name of the ''[[Weird Sisters]]'', i.e. the classical [[Fates]], who in the [[Elizabethan period]] were detached from their classical background and given an English personification as ''[[Fairy|fays]]''.
[[File:Johann Heinrich Füssli 019.jpg|alt=Painting showing three faces with hooked noses in profile, eyes looking up. Each has an arm outstretched with crooked fingers.|thumb|''The Three Witches'' by [[Henry Fuseli]] (1783)]]
The weird sisters notably appear as the [[Three Witches]] in Shakespeare's ''[[Macbeth]]''.<ref>Karsten, Gustaf E. ''Germanic Philology'', University of Illinois Press, 1908, p. 12.</ref> To elucidate this, many editors of the play include a footnote associating the "Weird Sisters" with the Old English word {{lang|ang|wyrd}} or 'fate'.<ref>de Grazia, Margareta and Stallybrass, Peter. ''The Materiality of the Shakespearean Text'', George Washington University, 1993, p. 263.</ref>

The modern English usage actually developed from Scots, in which beginning in the 14th century, ''to weird'' was used as a verb with the sense of 'to preordain by decree of fate'.{{Citation needed|date=October 2013}} This use then gave rise to the early nineteenth century adjective meaning 'unearthly', which then developed into modern English ''weird''.

The modern spelling ''weird'' first appeared in Scottish and Northern English dialects in the 16th century and was taken up in standard literary English starting in the 17th century. The regular form ought to have been ''wird'', from [[Early Modern English]] ''werd''. The replacement of ''werd'' by ''weird'' in the northern dialects is "difficult to account for".<ref>[[OED]]. cf. [[Phonological history of Scots#Vowel 15|phonological history of Scots]].</ref>

The most common modern meaning of ''weird''{{snd}}'odd, strange'{{snd}}is first attested in 1815, originally with a connotation of the supernatural or portentous (especially in the [[collocation]] ''weird and wonderful''), but by the early 20th century increasingly applied to everyday situations.<ref>[[OED]]; cf. [[Robert Barnhart|Barnhart, Robert K.]]  ''The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology''. [[HarperCollins]] {{ISBN|0-06-270084-7}} (1995:876).</ref>