weirdo

English

Etymology

From weird +‎ -o (“person with characteristic”). The earliest documented usages date to the early 1950s in the United States. The similar Scottish word "weirdie" (also referring to an odd, unconventional person) is attested from earlier, in 1887.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪədəʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪəɹdoʊ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)dəʊ

Noun

weirdo (plural weirdoes or weirdos)

1. (informal, chiefly derogatory) A strange, odd, eccentric person.
2. (informal, chiefly derogatory) An insane, possibly dangerous person.

Synonyms

• (strange person): See Thesaurus:strange person
• (insane person): See Thesaurus:mad person

Derived terms

• geardo
• queerdo

Translations

strange person

• Bulgarian: чудак (bg) m (čudak), особняк (bg) m (osobnjak)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 騎呢怪 / 骑呢怪 (ke⁴ le⁴ gwaai³)

  Mandarin: 怪人 (zh) (guàirén)

• Czech: podivín (cs) m
• Finnish: härö (fi)
• French: hurluberlu (fr), loufoque (fr), zarbi (fr)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Exzentriker (de) m, Spinner (de) m
• Greek: παράξενος (el) m (paráxenos), ανώμαλος (el) m (anómalos)
• Hungarian: különc (hu)
• Icelandic: furðufugl (is) m
• Ingrian: cudakka
• Italian: strambo (it)
• Japanese: 変な人 (hen na hito)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: eletewş (ku)

• Macedonian: чу́дак m (čúdak)
• Māori: porowairangi
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: raring m

• Polish: dziwak (pl) m, cudak (pl) m
• Portuguese: esquisito (pt) m, esquisitoide m or f
• Russian: чуда́к (ru) (čudák)
• Scottish Gaelic: baoghal m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: чудак

  Latin: čudak (sh)

• Spanish: excéntrico (es) m, bicho raro m, rarito (es) m, anormal (es) m or f

See also

• oddball
• wingnut

Adjective

weirdo (not comparable)

1. Weird.
   • 2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: Twilight Town:

     What's going on in this weirdo town?

   • 2019 December 8, Neal McCluskey, “Here’s The Trump Administration’s Weirdo Plan For The Student Aid Crisis”, in The National Interest‎^[1]:

Anagrams

• rowdie, wordie