Why is the word "weird" exempt from the "i before e, except after c" rule?

Because it’s English.

You’re right. It was simple.

@absalom ; figures.

That’s pretty weird!

Heh heh.

English, like other languages, has many irregularities. Lots of them are due to the history of the word or phrase (etymology). For example, the hoi polloi is wrong because the Greek already means the common people. Thus you don’t say the the common people.

Many odd usages stem from the inflexions of both Latin and Greek.

Here are two explanations that explain exactly nothing.

weirdness: noun
ORIGIN: Old English wyrd [destiny,] of Germanic origin.

deceive; verb

ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French deceivre, from Latin decipere ‘catch, ensnare, cheat.’

(“Or when sounded like “aee” like in neighbor and weigh. Then there’s veil.)

Weird simply wouldn’t be living up to its name if it followed the spelling rules just liken words that aren’t spelled in weird ways do. :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_before_e

It’s funny how many exceptions there are to this “rule”.

@troubleinharlem

My more earnest attempt and entirely uneducated guess would be that its dialectal bastardizations from the Old English wyrd (werd, wird, wurd, weard) simply led to another variation, weird, which seems to have appeared in the 16th century.

Also, an interesting fact: weird was only a noun until Shakespeare used it to describe his Weird Sisters in Macbeth (although he never spelled it weird). That we use it today almost exclusively as an adjective is his doing.

Because “i before e except after c” isn’t a rule. It’s a cute little rhyme someone made up that has pretty much no barring on any grammar in the English language.

because every “rule” made up in english language always has a fault and this is one of them.

The rules are descriptive, not prescriptive. The words came first, and the rules afterward. Think of them as generalities but not as absolutes.

Because there are exceptions to every rule, and “weird” is just plain weird.

THIS HAS FUCKED WITH ME SINCE I WAS SIX.

“Cries softly”

Creis*. Hey, that i and e are still after C.

Because “I before E except after C” is not the entire “rule” (if you can call it that).
It’s like saying that our Constitution consists of “We the people,” and only “We the people”.

@trumi – me too, if it weren’t for the spell checker, I wouldn’t have a clue how to spell wierd correctly.

The same reason science is.

English is a language of exceptions. I pity anyone who has to learn it as a second language.

I would crei; “It has no ”bearing on any grammar.” if I weren’t giving myself a little holiday and barring banning all thoughts of the red pencil.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land: How about the people who learn English as their mother tongue; or as someone recently said, “Tounge.”

@gailcalled I’m continually shocked how often I get bare/bear wrong. It seems to be the one homophone I can’t deal with.

@MrItty: Think of this D- pun: Gladly, the cross-eyed bear. (For assistance, call 911 or Milo.)

Making the words into this form of verb helps also: Barring would be pronounced differently from bearing.” He is barring the gate for the one who is bearing gifts. I am baring my teeth (showing my fangs.)

What a language, eh?

@gailcalled Wikipedia to the rescue…. I’d never heard of that quote, that song, or the word “Mondegreen”. :-)

Mrirry; My holiday gift to you. Amazing if there were anything remaining that is not described on the web.

@MrItty “Bear with me,” said the naked bear – who obviously was quite bare.

@Zen_Again see that’s the problem. I know the animal is “bear”, and I know “naked” is “bare”. It’s the hundred other definitions that I can’t remember which is which (to show off, to carry, to be responsible for, to head in a certain direction, etc).

Although, dictionary.com reveals to me that the vast majority of those other definitions are all “bear”. So maybe I should just start defaulting to that. :-P

To mention some more topics bearing on this subject;

Bear with me:

To bear arms
To bear mentioning or thinking about
To bare (to make naked) my soul.
Grin and bear it (tolerate it and not undress it).
To barely make ends meet. To barely be able to afford meat. Meet me in St. Louis.

Mritty; Simplify the problem and use a synonym.

@gailcalled bah. I think the best way to learn is to continuously be told “hey dumbass, that’s wrong!!”. :-)

Not by me. “Dumbass” is not part of my vocabulary; too generic and vague. Bear with me. I’ll think of a synonym. Long ago,my kids used to say “Poopy head.” Is that better?

that phrase is most definitely still in my vocabulary. Has been since I was a kid.

Rules were made to be broken.

Yes, including the “Rules were made to be broken” rule, that one was made to be broken often.

It all will change in time, just as The most beautiful changed to Beautifulest.

@Jeruba this particular rule is descriptive, but it doesn’t do a very good job at describing anything useful, which is probably why some people aren’t teaching it any more.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/spelling_bee/article6538821.ece