Origins
The verb 'weave' descends from Old English 'wefan' (to weave), from Proto-Germanic *webaną (to weave, to move back and forth), from PIE *webh- (to weave, to braid). It is one of the oldest craft words in English, preserving a vocabulary item that has been in continuous use for well over a thousand years in the Germanic languages and likely much longer in the Indo-European family as a whole.
Textile production is one of the foundational technologies of human civilization. Archaeological evidence of woven textiles dates to at least 27,000 years ago (impressions of woven fabric found on clay figurines at Dolní Věstonice in the Czech Republic), making weaving older than pottery, metallurgy, and possibly agriculture. The existence of a PIE word for weaving (*webh-) confirms that the speakers of Proto-Indo-European, around 4000 BCE, practiced the craft — though the archaeological evidence suggests the technology is far older than any language family.
The Proto-Germanic form *webaną is reflected across all Germanic languages: Old Norse 'vefa,' Old High German 'weban' (modern German 'weben'), Old Frisian 'weva,' Dutch 'weven,' Swedish 'väva,' Danish 'væve.' The consistency of the reflexes indicates that the word was firmly established in the common Germanic vocabulary before the languages diverged.
Proto-Indo-European Roots
Old English had a rich vocabulary of weaving-related words, most of which survive in Modern English. 'Wefan' (to weave) is the verb. 'Webb' (a web, a woven fabric) is the noun — something that has been woven. 'Weft' or 'wefta' (the crosswise threads in weaving, the threads carried by the shuttle) is the passive form: the weft is what has been woven into the warp. 'Warp' (the lengthwise threads stretched on the loom) comes from a different root (Old English 'wearp,' from Proto-Germanic *warpą, to throw — the warp threads are 'thrown' onto the loom). Together, warp and weft form the structural vocabulary of weaving.
The past tense of 'weave' in Old English was 'wæf' (singular) and 'wǣfon' (plural), a strong verb pattern. In Modern English, the strong past tense 'wove' and past participle 'woven' have survived alongside a weak form 'weaved,' which is used primarily for the sense of moving from side to side ('she weaved through traffic'). This split — 'wove' for interlacing threads, 'weaved' for zigzag movement — is a useful semantic distinction that emerged naturally from the history of the verb's conjugation.
The noun 'web' is the oldest and most important derivative. In Old English, 'webb' meant a woven fabric, a piece of cloth, or a tapestry. The word was applied to a spider's web because the spider's silken construction resembles woven cloth — the spider is a weaver. 'Cobweb' is a compound of 'coppe' (spider, from Old English 'ātorcoppe,' poison-head) and 'web.' The metaphorical power of 'web' reached its fullest expression when Tim Berners-Lee named his hypertext system the 'World Wide Web' in 1989, connecting the newest information technology to one of humanity's oldest crafts. The metaphor is structurally precise: both a web of cloth and the digital web are created by interlacing individual strands (threads / hyperlinks) into an interconnected structure.
French Influence
The word 'wafer' may also belong to this family. Old French 'waufre' (wafer, honeycomb pattern) appears to derive from a Frankish or other Germanic word related to 'weave,' referring to the honeycomb or grid pattern pressed into the thin cake. If so, the wafer is named for its woven appearance — the grid of the waffle iron creates a pattern that looks like a weave.
Weaving metaphors permeate English. One weaves a narrative, weaves through traffic, weaves a spell. The metaphor works because weaving is a process of construction from individual elements — threads, events, movements — into a coherent whole. The ancient association between weaving and storytelling (the thread of a narrative, the fabric of a plot, the unraveling of a mystery) reflects the deep structural similarity between the two activities: both create meaning by ordering and interlacing.