different between weird vs wen

English

Alternative forms

• weïrd, wierd (obsolete)
• weyard, weyward (obsolete, Shakespeare)

Etymology

From Middle English werde, wierde, wirde, wyrede, wurde, from Old English wyrd (“fate”), from Proto-West Germanic *wurdi, from Proto-Germanic *wurdiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn, wind”). Cognate with Icelandic urður (“fate”). Related to Old English weorþan (“to become”). Doublet of wyrd. More at worth.

Weird was extinct by the 16th century in English. It survived in Scots, whence Shakespeare borrowed it in naming the Weird Sisters, reintroducing it to English. The senses "abnormal", "strange" etc. arose via reinterpretation of Weird Sisters and date from after this reintroduction.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w??d/, /?wi??d/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?wi?d/, /?w??d/
• Rhymes: -??(r)d

Adjective

weird (comparative weirder, superlative weirdest)

1. Having an unusually strange character or behaviour.

2. Deviating from the normal; bizarre.

3. (archaic) Of or pertaining to the Fates.

   (Can we find and add a quotation to this entry?)

4. (archaic) Connected with fate or destiny; able to influence fate.
5. (archaic) Of or pertaining to witches or witchcraft; supernatural; unearthly; suggestive of witches, witchcraft, or unearthliness; wild; uncanny.

   • Those sweet, low tones, that seemed like a weird incantation.

   • 1912, Victor Whitechurch, Thrilling Stories of the Railway

     Naphtha lamps shed a weird light over a busy scene, for the work was being continued night and day. A score or so of sturdy navvies were shovelling and picking along the track.

6. (archaic) Having supernatural or preternatural power.

Synonyms

• (having supernatural or preternatural power): eerie, spooky, uncanny
• (unusually strange in character or behaviour): odd, oddball, peculiar, strange, whacko; see also Thesaurus:insane
• (deviating from the normal): bizarre, fremd, odd, out of the ordinary, strange; see also Thesaurus:strange
• (of or pertaining to the Fates): fateful

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

weird (plural weirds)

1. (archaic) Fate; destiny; luck.
2. A prediction.
3. (obsolete, Scotland) A spell or charm.
   • 1813, Walter Scott, The Bridal of Triermain

     Thou shalt bear thy penance lone
     In the Valley of Saint John,
     And this weird shall overtake thee

4. That which comes to pass; a fact.
5. (archaic, in the plural) The Fates (personified).

Synonyms

• (fate; destiny): kismet, lot, orlay, wyrd
• (luck): fortune, luck; see also Thesaurus:luck
• (prediction): foretale, foretelling, prognostication; see also Thesaurus:prediction
• (spell or charm): enchantment, incantation, cantrip
• (fact):
• (The Fates): The Norns

Derived terms

• dree one’s weird
• weirdless

Verb

weird (third-person singular simple present weirds, present participle weirding, simple past and past participle weirded)

1. (transitive) To destine; doom; change by witchcraft or sorcery.
2. (transitive) To warn solemnly; adjure.

Adverb

weird (not comparable)

1. (nonstandard) In a strange manner. [from 1970s]

Usage notes

As an adverb, weird is only used to modify verbs, and is always positioned after the verb it modifies. Unlike weirdly it cannot modify an adjective (as in "She was weirdly generous.") or an entire sentence (as in "Weirdly, no-one spoke up.").

Synonyms

• funny (adverb), strangely, weirdly

Anagrams

• Dwire, wider, wierd, wired, wride, wried

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English weird.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wi?d/

Adjective

weird (plural weirds)

1. (Quebec, Louisiana, informal) weird, bizarre.

Scots

Alternative forms

• wierd

Etymology

From Old English wyrd (“fate, destiny”), from Proto-Germanic *wurdiz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wird/, [wi?rd]

Noun

weird (plural weirds)

1. fate, fortune, destiny, one's own particular fate or appointed lot
2. event destined to happen, a god's decree, omen, prophecy, prediction
3. wizard, warlock, one having deep or supernatural skill or knowledge

Derived terms

Adjective

weird (comparative mair weird, superlative maist weird)

1. troublesome, mischievous, harmful

Verb

weird (third-person singular present weirds, present participle weirdin, past weirdit, past participle weirdit)

1. to ordain by fate, destine, assign a specific fate or fortune to, allot
2. to imprecate, invoke
3. to prophesy, prognosticate the fate of, warn ominously

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?n, IPA^(key): /w?n/
• Rhymes: -?n
• Homophone: when (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Etymology 1

From Middle English wen, wenne, from Old English wenn, wænn (“wen”), from Proto-Germanic *wanjaz. Cognate with Dutch wen (“goiter”), Low German Ween (“wen”), dialectal German Wenne (“wen”), Danish van, væne.

Noun

wen (plural wens)

1. A cyst on the skin.
   • 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Walden:

     When I have met an immigrant tottering under a bundle which contained his all--looking like an enormous wen which had grown out of the nape of his neck--I have pitied him, not because that was his all, but because he had all that to carry.

   • 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow:

     Creeps, foreigners with tinted, oily skin, wens, sties, cysts, wheezes, bad teeth, limps, staring or—worse—with Strange Faraway Smiles.

   • 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, Abacus 2013, p. 4:

     I am debating whether to risk scratching the right side of my jaw, where there is a wen.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Old English wynn.

Noun

wen (plural wens)

1. a runic letter later replaced by w

Etymology 3

Eye dialect spelling of when.

Adverb

wen (not comparable)

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when

Conjunction

wen

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when

Pronoun

wen

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when

Noun

wen (uncountable)

1. (eye dialect) Alternative spelling of when

Anagrams

• New, new, new-

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch winnen, from Middle Dutch winnen, from Old Dutch winnan, from Proto-Germanic *winnan?, from Proto-Indo-European *wenh?- (“to strive, desire, wish, love”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /v?n/

Verb

wen (present wen, present participle wennende, past participle gewen)

1. to win

Belizean Creole

Conjunction

wen

1. when

References

• Crosbie, Paul, ed. (2007), Kriol-Inglish Dikshineri: English-Kriol Dictionary. Belize City: Belize Kriol Project, p. 371.

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??n/
• Hyphenation: wen
• Rhymes: -?n

Etymology 1

From Proto-Germanic *hwann?. Cognate with English when, German wann.

Adverb

wen

1. (archaic) when

   En ik dacht aan den geur harer bloesems, aan het huiveren harer takken, aan den zang harer vogelen; en ik vroeg mij: wen rieken wij die? (V. Someren, 1822)

   And I thought about the scent of her blossoms, at the shuddering of her branches, at the songs of her birds, and I asked myself: when do we smell these?

Conjunction

wen

1. (archaic) when

   Daar heb ik wen de vogels vlogen, heimelik in elk nest geschouwd! (L. De Mont, 1880)

   There have I, when the birds flew, looked privily in each nest!

Etymology 2

Verb

wen

1. first-person singular present indicative of wennen
2. imperative of wennen

Elfdalian

Etymology

From Old Norse hvern.

Pronoun

wen

1. what

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ve?n]
• Rhymes: -e?n

Pronoun

wen

1. (interrogative) accusative of wer: whom (direct object).

   Wen hast du gefragt?

   Whom did you ask?

Further reading

• “wen” in Duden online

Gothic

Romanization

w?n

1. Romanization of ????????????

Ilocano

Particle

wen

1. yes

Japanese

Romanization

wen

1. R?maji transcription of ??

Mandarin

Romanization

wen

1. Nonstandard spelling of w?n.
2. Nonstandard spelling of wén.
3. Nonstandard spelling of w?n.
4. Nonstandard spelling of wèn.

Usage notes

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

wen

1. Alternative form of wayn (“wagon”)

Etymology 2

Noun

wen (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of wynne (“happiness”)

Etymology 3

Verb

wen

1. (Northern) Alternative form of winnen (“to win”)

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *w?niz, from Proto-Indo-European *wenh?- (“love”). Cognate with Old Frisian wen, Old Saxon wan, Old High German w?n (German Wahn (“delusion”)), Old Norse ván, Gothic ???????????????? (w?ns).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /we?n/

Noun

w?n f

1. hope, belief
2. expectation, likelihood

Declension

Descendants

• Middle English: wene, wen
  • English: ween
  • Scots: wen, wene

Welsh

Adjective

wen

1. Soft mutation of gwen (“white (feminine)”).

Mutation