Wyrd

The Old English term derives from a Proto-Germanic term . Wyrd has cognates in Old Saxon , Old Norse , Dutch (to become), and German . and in Proto-Germanic is with a meaning 'to come to pass, to become, to be due'. To elucidate this, many editors of the play include a footnote associating the "Weird Sisters" with the Old English word or 'fate'. 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'. 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". The most common modern meaning of weird'odd, strange'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. ==Fate in Germanic mythology==

(1889)|upright According to J. Duncan Spaeth, "Wyrd (Norse Urd, one of the three Norns) is the Old English goddess of Fate, whom even Christianity could not entirely displace." is a feminine noun, and its Norse cognate , besides meaning 'fate', is the name of one of the deities known as Norns. For this reason, has been interpreted by some scholars as a pre-Christian goddess of fate. Other scholars deny a pagan signification of in the Old English period, but allow that may have been a deity in the pre-Christian period. In particular, some scholars argue that the three Norns are a late influence from the three Moirai in Greek and Roman mythology, who are goddesses of fate. The names of the Norns are Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld. means 'that which has come to pass', means "that which is in the process of happening" (it is the present participle of the verb cognate to ), and means 'debt' or 'guilt' (from a Germanic root 'to owe', also found in English should and shall). Between themselves, the Norns weave fate or (from 'out, from, beyond' and 'law', and may be interpreted literally as 'beyond law'). According to Voluspa 20, the three Norns "set up the laws", "decided on the lives of the children of time" and "promulgate their ". Frigg, on the other hand, while she "knows all ørlǫg", "says it not herself" (Lokasenna 30). Lawless that is "" occurs in Voluspa 17 in reference to driftwood, that is given breath, warmth and spirit by three gods, to create the first humans, Ask and Embla ('Ash' and possibly 'Elm' or 'Vine'). Mentions of in Old English literature include The Wanderer, "" ('Fate remains wholly inexorable') and Beowulf, "" ('Fate goes ever as she shall!'). In The Wanderer, is irrepressible and relentless. She or it "snatches the earls away from the joys of life," and "the wearied mind of man cannot withstand her" for her decrees "change all the world beneath the heavens". ==Other uses==

The Wyrd Mons, a mountain on Venus, is named after an "Anglo-Saxon weaving goddess". Frank Herbert used the word "weird" in his science-fiction novel Dune to connote power, e.g. a martial art is referred to as "the Weirding Way", which takes place at the speed of thought. This was modified by director David Lynch, in his 1984 film version of the book, to become a system of sonic weapons called "weirding modules." ==See also==