Hi this is this is Tutor Nick P and this is
Word Origin 61. The  word origin today is
weird. Okay. Let's take a look at the note
here. The origin of this word dates all
the way back to the Greek and Roman
mythology,  especially Greek. It originally
started in Greek. 
Remember that the Romans conquered the
Greeks and they adopted all their mythology
anyway. But it really started in Greek
mythology and was used to mean fate or
destiny.  That was...  that's what the
original word meant. 
It eventually involved into someone who
controlled another person's fate due to
the three ancient virgin goddesses called
The Fates. Yeah. So they supposedly had
control of people's fate or destiny. This
also continued in Norse mythology. 
Remember Norse mythology that's the one
in like the Scandinavian area you know, 
the one where today we probably mostly
think if it connected to somebody like
Thor,  the superhero.  Thor and Odin and
Loki . They all come from Norse
mythology. Okay. But remember that was
very far north and then that also had an
effect on England or the British because
you know they got to hear about that. And
we're described as odd and scary in
appearance. Okay. They started to be
referred to as the Weird Sisters and
they were often associated with
witchcraft. The old British word weird
well they used to spell at W-Y -R-D
eventually evolved into the word
weird today. 
You know the way we spell today W-E-I- R-D.
Okay. Let's continue.  Shakespeare used
this idea as well in his famous play
Macbeth. And that's one of his more
famous plays too. The three witches were
based on The Fates. 
That's where he kind of got the idea
from or maybe through the Norse
mythology as well and were considered to
be prophets who predicted Macbeth's rise
to becoming King. Okay. There used to be
another meaning from an 1828 dictionary
for weird meaning skilled in witchcraft.
So,  so that idea held on for a long time. 
Although we don't really associate it
with witchcraft today but you know, 
that's in part of its history. This led
to our modern definition of weird
meaning very strange or uncanny.
Well uncanny means kind of like not
natural or mysterious. So this is how it
evolved into this meaning that we have
today. Okay. Anyway,  I hope you enjoyed it.
I hope you felt it was informative. Thank
you for your time. Bye-bye.
