Forms: 1 wyrd, 3–5 wird, (4 wired, 5 wirid), wirde, 4–5 wyrde; 4 wyerde, wierde, 4–6 werd (5 werid), werde, 4– weird (5 Sc. veird), 7–8 (9 Sc.) wierd; Sc. 6 waird, 6–7 weard, 8 weerd. [OE. wyrd fem., = OS. wurd (pl. wurdi), OHG. wurt, ON. urð-r, from the weak grade of the stem werþ-, warþ-, wurþ- to become: see WORTH v.
The word is common in OE., but wanting in ME. until c. 1300, and then occurs chiefly in northern texts, though employed also by Chaucer, Gower and Langland. The normal later and modern form would have been wird, and the substitution of werd, wèrd (which is natural in southeastern ME.) is difficult to account for in the northern dialects. In senses now current the word is either Scottish or archaic (chiefly under the influence of Scottish writers).]
1. The principle, power or agency by which events are predetermined; fate, destiny.
Beowulf, 455. Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel. Ibid., 477. Hie wyrd forsweop on Grendles gryre.
c. 888. Ælfred, Boeth., xxxix. § 5. Ac þæt þæt we wyrd hatað, þæt bið Godes weorc þæt he ælce dæʓ wyrcð.
a. 1000. Seafarer, 115. Wyrd biþ swiðre, meotud meahtiʓra, þonne ænʓes monnes ʓehyʓd.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 249. What wyrde has hyder my iuel vayned.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 2134. Worbe hit wele, oþer wo, as þe wyrde lykez hit hafe.
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 443. Þat sygnyfys þe same man þat sett is, be wird, So many prouynce to pas.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, IX. 244. As werd will wyrk, thi fortoun mon thou tak.
c. 1585. Montgomerie, Sonn., xxxiii. 1. Vhom suld I warie bot my wicked weard, Vha span my thriftles thrauard fatall threed?
1603. Philotus, c. Quhat wickit weird hes wrocht our wo?
[1895. W. Morris, Beowulf, 16. Weird wends as she willeth. Ibid., 17. Weird swept them away.]
b. Magical power, enchantment.
1813. Hogg, Queen’s Wake, 79. He heard the word of awsome weird, And he saw their deedis of synn.
2. pl. The Fates, the three goddesses supposed to determine the course of human life.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), P. 15. Parcae, wyrde.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., Hypermnestra, 19. The werdys that we clepyn destene Hath shapyn hire that she mot nedis be Pyetous sad.
c. 1450. Crt. of Love, 1173. I mene, the three of fatall destinè, That be our werdes.
1483. Cath. Angl., 420/2. Wyrdis, parce.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, I. i. 30. Gif werdis war nocht contrair [si qua fata sinant].
1547. Surrey, Æneis, IV. 581 (Roxb.), F iij. The werdes withstande [fata obstant].
a. 1585. Montgomerie, Flyting, 326. ‘Woe worth,’ quoth the Weirds, ‘the wights that thee wroght!’
1632. Lithgow, Trav., i. 5. And whilst from Phleg’ran fields, the weirds me call, I in Elisean plaines, am forc’d to fall.
1722. Ramsay, Three Bonnets, II. 13. Ye’re grown sae braw: now weirds defend me!
1855. Singleton, Virgil, I. 29. ‘Career ye on,’ Have to their spindles cried … the Weirds [Parcae].
b. One pretending or supposed to have the power to foresee and to control future events; a witch or wizard, a soothsayer.
1625. Heylin, Microcosmos (ed. 2), 509. These two … were mette by three Fairies, or Witches (Weirds the Scots call them).
1654. Vilvain, Enchir. Epigr., II. lxxx. The 2 Scots courtiers, who met three Wierds or Witches which foretold their fortune.
1682. C. Irvine, Hist. Scot. Nomencl., 12. Arioli. Weards, Sooth-sayers, or Second-sighted-men.
1834. A. Smart, Rambling Rhymes, 164. Puir auld wives … were seized in Superstition’s clutches, An’ brunt to death for wierds an’ witches.
1899. J. Spence, Shetland Folk-lore, 143. With this green nettle And cross of metal I witches and wierds defy.
3. That which is destined or fated to happen to a particular person, etc.; what one will do or suffer; one’s appointed lot or fortune, destiny.
Often in to dree one’s weird: see DREE v. 2 c.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), § 433. Sortem, wyrd, condicionem.
c. 888. Ælfred, Boeth., xl. § 1. Ic wille secʓan þæt ælc wyrd bio good, sam hio monnum good þinc, sam hio him yfel þince.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3453. Strang weird was giuen to þam o were þat þai moght noght þair strif for-bere. Ibid., 9968. Had neuer womman sa blisful wird … As maria maiden.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 2418. Dalyda dalt hym hys wyrde.
c. 1400. Ant. Arthur, xvi. (Irel. MS.). ‘Ways me for thy wirde!’ cothe Waynor.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 4680. Þai grett, þai sorowed þair sary werde.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, IV. 761. My waryed werd in warld I mon fullfill.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., I. 109. Euerie ladie passit hame … Weipand full soir and wareand hir werd.
1563. Sackville, Induct. Mirr. Mag., lxiii. It made myne iyes in very teares consume: When I beheld the wofull werd befall, That by the wrathful wyl or Gods was come.
a. 1600. Montgomerie, Misc. Poems, xlvi. 31. They haif wroght my weird Vnhappiest on eird.
1718. Ramsay, Christ’s Kirk Gr., III. viii. It’s a wise wife that kens her weird.
a. 1774. Fergusson, On Seeing Butterfly, Poems (1845), 18. Those Whose weird is still to creep, alas! Unnoticed, ’mang the humble grass.
1795. Burns, ‘O tell na me,’ iii. Let simple maid the lesson read, The weird may be her ain.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xii. My weird maun be fulfilled, Mr. Butler.
1892. J. A. Henderson, Ann. Lower Deeside, 79. The weird of this kirk is that it will fall in time of worship.
1909. Belloc, Marie Antoinette, 255. The death of Mirabeau changed all, and it was one more of those hammer-blows of Fate exactly coincident with the sequence of the Queen’s weird.
b. pl. (often in reference to a single person).
a. 1300. Cursor M., 15279. Þe gait it es al graid, He mai sai wirdes warid Þat forwit him es laid.
1320–30. Horn Ch., 456. Wiif thai toke, and duelled thare; In Inglond com thai no mare, Her werdes for to bide.
c. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, lxxiv. 5. Sum says it was my werdis; sum says the sterne of my birth gert me syn.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., I. met. i. (1886), 1. The sorful wierdes of me olde man [maesti mea fata senis].
1390. Gower, Conf., II. 94. Whan thei at mi nativite My weerdes setten as thei wolde.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. IV. 241. As hus werdes [v.r. wirdus] were ordeined.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., ix. So vncouthly hir werdes sche deuideth.
c. 1470. Harding, Chron., LXXXV. iv. Fortune, false executryse of weerdes [= Chaucer, Troylus, III. 617], That euermore … To all debates thou strongly so enherdes.
1571. Sir J. Maitland, in Satir. Poems Reform., xxvii. 102. Then warreitt war thy weirdis and wanhap.
1579. Sc. Acts Jas. VI. (1814), III. 140/1. That they can tell þair weardis deathis & fortunes.
c. spec. An evil fate inflicted by supernatural power, esp. by way of retribution.
[a. 1300. Cursor M., 8981. Bot hard it es, þe wird o sin þat yarked was til adam kin!]
1874. ‘Ouida,’ Two little Wooden Shoes, 132. Swallows do not tell their secrets. They have the weird of Procne on them all.
1877. Trench, Lect. Med. Ch. Hist., 178. But a weird was upon him and upon his race.
1885. Jean Ingelow, Sleep of Sigismund, 7. The weird is on him to grope in the dark with endless Weariful feet for a goal that shifteth still.
4. a. A happening, event, occurrence.
Prov. After word comes weird, the mention of a thing is followed by its occurrence or appearance.
a. 900. Cynewulf’s Christ, 81. Ne we þære wyrde wenan þurfon toweard in tide.
971. Blickl. Hom., 221. Þa ʓelamp wundorlic wyrd þæt se leʓ ongan slean & brecan onʓean þone wind.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 340. It were a wonder wierde To sen a king become an hierde.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert, 5459. It befell þis wondir werde.
1721. J. Kelly, Sc. Prov., 2. After Word comes Weird; fair fall them that call me Madam.
1883. Hall Caine, Shadow Crime, xxxvi. Weel, weel; after word comes weird. That’s why the constables are gone, and that’s why Robbie’s come.
b. That which is destined or fated to happen; predetermined events collectively.
c. 1470. Golagros & Gaw., 1082. Thair wil nane wyis, that ar wis, wary the werd.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, III. vii. 48. Bot we from werd to werd and chance mon wend.
1876. W. Morris, Sigurd, I. 3. A tale that the elders have told, A story of weird and of woe.
5. † a. A decree (of a god). Obs.
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 270. Þe werdes Of my gracious goddis, þe grettest on erde.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. xii. 202. And thou, Tellus, mast nobill God of erd, Hald fast the speris hed by ȝour werd.
† b. An omen or token significant of the nature of a future event; a prognostic. Obs.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. xiii. 150. Jove … bad hir hald doun baldly to the erd, For to resist Juturnais ire and werd [L. omen].
1533. Bellenden, Livy (S.T.S.), II. 233. Þe senat … said þai acceppit þe weird þat followit one þir wourdis.
c. A prediction of the fate that is to happen to a person, etc.; a prophecy.
1785. Poems Buchan Dial., 18. Altho’ his mither, in her weirds, Foretald his death at Troy.
1802. C. Gray, Poems (1811), 73. Then, as to his fortin tellin’,… he ne’er liket to be sellin’ His weird for wind.
d. A supernatural or marvellous occurrence or tale.
1814. W. Nicholson, Poet. Wks. (1897), 40. [She] Could tell her tale or lilt her sang,… Wi’ weirds and witcheries aft atween, And unco sights that some had seen.
a. 1859. A. Tait, in Jas. Watson, Living Bards of Border, 151. What legends and weirds these fair scenes still awaken.
6. Comb., as weird-fixed, -set adjs.; weird-licht Sc. the light of destiny; † weird-man, a seer; weird-woman, a witch.
1819. W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d (1827), 181. Now was come the *weird-fix’t hour Ordain’d to break the Papish power.
1844. W. Thom, Rhymes & Recoll., 54. There’s a bricht e’e looks love to me, Like the *weird licht o’er me shining.
1806. Jamieson, Pop. Ballads, I. 238. ‘Dire is the doom,’ the *wierd-man said; ‘Nae mair, O lady, speir!’
1819. W. Tennant, Papistry Storm’d (1827), 46. The *weird-set day begins to daw.
1845. J. E. Carpenter, Poems & Lyrics, 34. The *weird-woman had stol’n away.
