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Etymology and origin of the English word weave

Pronunciation

weave1 to make cloth

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 899 Alfred's translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History
Inherited from
Old English wefan via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *webʰ-

Etymology

The verb meaning to make cloth is inherited from Middle English weven,[2][3][4][5] inherited from Old English wefan (“to weave; to devise, contrive”),[2][6][7][8] from Proto-Germanic *webaną,[2][9][10] from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to weave”).[8][3][11] Kroonen reconstructs the present stem as *h₁uébʰ-e-.[9] It is cognate with Old Norse vefa, Dutch weven, Old High German weban and German weben,[2][12][3][7] and outside Germanic with Ancient Greek ὑφή (huphḗ, “web”), ὕφος (húphos, “web”) and ὑφαίνω (huphaínō, “to weave”),[7][8][3][5] Tocharian A wäp- (“to weave”) and Albanian vej (“to weave”).[10] The same root gave web, weft and woof,[7][13] and Ayto counts wafer and probably wasp among its relatives.[13] The Old English past tense was wæf and the past participle wefen;[2][7] in the 14th and 15th centuries the participle took the form woven, after strong verbs such as steal, and its vowel spread to the past tense wove.[7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To form a fabric by interlacing yarns: about 899, in Alfred's translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History;[3][7] the Middle English form weven is recorded from about 1200.[3] In Old English the verb could already mean, figuratively, to devise or contrive.[2]

Semantic evolution

From weaving cloth, the verb was used of a spider spinning its web (about 1220),[7] of depicting something in tapestry (about 1385, in Chaucer),[7] and of making baskets or wreaths by interlacing twigs or flowers (1495).[7] The figurative sense of contriving or devising something with care is recorded from about 1420,[7] and that of combining parts into a connected whole, as in weaving incidents into a story, from 1545;[7][3] Etymonline and Barnhart find it already in the late 14th century.[2][3] In Scotland the verb meant to knit, and in dialect to plait hair.[7][14] The noun, at first something woven (1581, in a translation of Homer), came to mean a method or pattern of weaving in 1888,[7][2][3] and since 1958 a hairpiece woven into a person's own hair.[7][15] Barnhart counts the sense of moving by twisting and turning, as through traffic, under this verb, dating it to 1650,[3] and Etymonline dates it to the 1640s;[2] the OED and Merriam-Webster place it under weave2.[7][5]

Timeline

  • c. 899 – to form a fabric by interlacing yarns.[3][7]
  • c. 1200 – the Middle English form weven.[3]
  • c. 1220 – of a spider, to spin a web.[7]
  • c. 1420 – figurative, to contrive or devise with care.[7]
  • 1495 – to make a basket or wreath by interlacing.[7]
  • 1545 – to combine parts into a connected whole.[7][3]
  • 1581 – noun, something woven (obsolete by 1646).[7][3]
  • 1888 – noun, a pattern or method of weaving.[7][2]
  • 1958 – noun, a hair weave.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (past tense wove or weaved, past participle woven or weaved) To make cloth by interlacing threads or yarn, especially on a loom: Her grandmother wove blankets from the wool of her own sheep.[16][5][7]
  2. To make something such as a basket or wreath by interlacing cane, twigs, flowers or the like.[16][7]
  3. Of a spider or insect, to spin a web or cocoon.[16][7]
  4. To combine separate elements into a connected whole, or to work details into a narrative: The novelist wove local legends into the plot.[16][5][7]
  5. (Scotland) To knit.[7][14]

Noun

  1. A particular method or pattern of weaving, as in plain weave or satin weave.[5][7]
  2. A hairpiece or hair extension woven into a person's own hair.[5][7][15]

Word family

  • weaver
  • interweave
  • inweave
  • reweave
  • unweave
  • outweave
  • plain weave
  • satin weave
  • basketweave

weave2 to move in a winding course

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1200 before 1200, Trinity Homilies
Borrowed from
Old Norse veifa via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Old Norse veifa

Etymology

The verb meaning to move to and fro is inherited from Middle English weven (“to move from place to place; to move to and fro”), of uncertain origin.[17][2][7] The Shorter Oxford, Hoad, Ayto and the Oxford Dictionary of English take it as probably borrowed from Old Norse veifa (“to move about, wave, brandish”),[18][8][13][19] and Merriam-Webster as akin to it;[5] the Old Norse verb corresponds to Dutch weiven and is ultimately related to Latin vibrō (“to shake”), the source of vibrate.[18][8] Ayto traces it to Proto-Indo-European *weib- (“to move quickly”), also the source of whip and wipe.[13] The MED suggests instead that it may come from the same Old English source as weave1, or from -wǣfan as in bewǣfan;[17] Etymonline also considers it perhaps the same word as the verb meaning to make cloth, and compares vafra (“to hover about, vibrate”).[2] The OED treats the modern verb as a continuation of the Middle English verb,[7] which Hoad takes as a variant of waive.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To move or go from one place to another, to wander: before 1200, in the Trinity Homilies, of an evil spirit that goes out of a man and wanders seeking rest.[17][13] Etymonline dates this sense to about 1200.[2]

Semantic evolution

From moving about or travelling, the Middle English verb came to mean moving to and fro, fluttering or wavering, by the early 14th century.[2][17] The sense of moving from side to side, swaying, or threading one's way along a winding course appears in the 1590s (1596, in Spenser's Faerie Queene),[7][2][8] and Ayto thinks it arose through the influence of weave1.[13] In 1593 the verb meant to signal to a ship by waving,[7][5] and it was used from 1607 for moving the hand to and fro.[7] Boxers used it from 1818 for stepping close in to an opponent before striking,[7][2][8] and horses were said to weave when they rocked restlessly in the stall (1831).[7][5] In the Second World War the Royal Air Force used it of aircraft flying a zigzag course to avoid fire (1941), and its slang get weaving, to get a move on, is recorded from 1942.[7]

Timeline

  • before 1200 – to move from place to place, wander.[17]
  • early 14th century – to move to and fro.[2]
  • 1593 – to signal to a ship by waving.[7][5]
  • 1596 – to move from side to side; to take a winding course.[7]
  • 1818 – boxing, to step in close to an opponent.[7][2]
  • 1831 – of a horse, to sway restlessly in the stall.[7]
  • 1941 – of an aircraft, to fly a zigzag course.[7]
  • 1942 – get weaving, to hurry up.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (past tense and past participle weaved) To move from side to side, or to make one's way by turning and twisting in and out: The courier weaved through the stalled traffic.[7][5][8]
  2. To sway or move unsteadily from side to side.[5][7]
  3. Of a horse or a captive animal, to rock the head and body restlessly.[5][7]
  4. (boxing) To move the head and body from side to side, or to close in on an opponent before striking.[7][2]
  5. get weaving (British, colloquial): to set to work quickly; to hurry.[7]
  6. (obsolete) To signal to a ship by waving.[5][7]
  • web
  • weft
  • woof
  • wafer
  • wasp
  • waive
  • vibrate
  • wave

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ a b c d e f Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  14. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  18. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  19. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press

Derived terms

Related etymologies

  • kettle · also from Old Norse
  • thrall · also from Old Norse
  • thwart · also from Old Norse
  • haggle · also from Old Norse
  • awkward · also from Old Norse
  • same · also from Old Norse
  • big · also from Old Norse
  • until · also from Old Norse
Cite this entry

“Weave.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/weave. Accessed 31 Oct. 2026.

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