Weird. It’s a word that we all know and love and use on a daily basis: “that was weird”, “it was a weird vibe”, “the music was weird”, etc. The thing about weird is, well, it is a weird word. I think that it’s one of those words that is so baked into the language that culturally we don’t fully acknowledge the extent of its meaning. The term tends to be used as a catch all term for describing something indescribable, such as the word “indescribable”. And this catch-all-ness results in individuals using the verbiage rather unconsciously. My goal in writing this is to a) extrapolate the roots of weirdness from that to develop an intentional plan for how I want to use the word going forward.
“Weird” is very inconsistent in what it exactly signifies, and dictionaries seem to struggle with the meaning. Oxford Languages[1] describes it adjectively as “suggesting something supernatural; uncanny” or as a verb “to induce a sense of disbelief or alienation in someone” (e.g. the place weirded him out). Cambridge describes the weird adjective as “strange and different from anything natural or ordinary[2]”. And good old Merriam-Webster describes it as “1: strange or extraordinary character and 2: of, relating to, or caused by witchcraft or the supernatural[3]”. Synonyms for the word weird listed on the various thesauruses include odd, fantastic, magical unusual, uncanny, strange, abnormal, otherworldly, ghostly…etc.
I think Cambridge’s “strange and different from ordinary” is perhaps best as acknowledges that when something is “weird” it is not a part of the everyday. When something is weird it stands out, and that definition is neutral, as weird can describe something good (“100 gecs are so weird, I love their music”) or bad weird (“the abandoned elementary school classroom was really weird”). In essence, I think that the dictionary definitions of the word describes something “out there” or “other than normal”. And this doesn’t take into consideration the noun that occurs when one adds an “o”. I feel like the term “weirdo” often takes on considerable negative connotations when used day-to-day. But when weirdo is used to describe an artist (such as “Weird Al” Yanckovic or various Bowie personalities) it may be seen as a positive thing.
Well, the weird only gets weirder the deeper you dive into its history. I decided to investigate the actual etymology of the word weird and found that it has the most fascinating origin. When googling “weird etymology” the result is this:
"Old English wyrd ‘destiny’, of Germanic origin. The adjective 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’."
I will admit that I did some sneaky writing here as earlier dictionary entries did include this esoteric origin of the word, such as Merriam-Webster defining the word as “Noun: fate destiny”. This word origin honestly shocked me a little bit, because when I evoke weird to describe something I definitely don’t associate it with destiny in any way.
This Mashed Radish article does a real solid job of tracing the history of the word from its original form meaning “to turn”, the popularization of Shakespeare, and now into the modern lexicon. Basically, the word weird was turned to a more banal context through its popularization. The word no longer invoked elements of destiny, but rather indicated peculiar or something that makes one go “huh”.
But maybe we as a culture should start thinking of weird through its more esoteric connotations, and that way we may better be able to articulate the power of the word weird. As I said earlier, I think that weird signifies something that is out of the ordinary. So perhaps the understanding of weirdness as something that breaks the ordinary day-to-day tedium, something that disrupts the routine, is a way to regard weirdness as something that is deeply connected to one’s fate or destiny. No one discusses the normal events of the day, but if a recounting of an abnormal day is bound to begin with “something weird happened today”. The weirdness or the weird events and occurrences are more likely the things to shape one’s fate or destiny if that is the case. Weird feelings, both good and bad, disrupt the regular flow of feelings etc.
I think that there is value in maybe interpreting what one may understand as weird as the elements of life that are connected to destiny and more surreal flows of time. So in summation, I am calling for a weird revival, linking the word to a sense of fate and the beauty of the irregularities of day-to-day life. Henceforth, when I try use the word weird, I hope to signify that this particular weirdness does have the power to shape my destiny in some way.
[1]https://www.google.com/search?q=weird+definition&oq=weird+defin&aqs=chrome.0.0i433i512j69i57j0i512l8.5297j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 [2] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/weird [3]https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/weird [4] https://mashedradish.com/2014/04/08/weird/
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