The orgin of the word "Weird".

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We owe the weird and wonderful word "weird" to Shakespeare, who used it six times in Macbeth (1605): five times in the phrase "weird Sisters," and once in "the weird Women," all referring to the three witches who plot Macbeth's downfall. Shakespeare borrowed the phrase from its use in Middle English (about 1400) to describe the three Fates or deities of ancient mythology who determine the destiny of human beings, "weird" meaning "having the supernatural power to control a person's fate, claiming to deal with fate or destiny." It was the poet Shelley who, in the period 1816-1820, extended the meaning of weird from "having a supernatural power" to "of a mysterious or unearthly character, strange, uncanny," as in a weird sound of stillness, weird winter nights, and "strange or odd in appearance," as in "Mutable as shapes in the weird clouds" (1816, Alastor). The alliterative expression "weird and wonderful," meaning "marvelous in a strange way," has been in use since the 1850s, often ironically.