Etymology

web

W4E1B3

Today it means: The silken structure which a spider builds using silk secreted from the spinnerets at the caudal tip of its abdomen; a spiderweb. Full definition →

Middle English web ← Old English webb ← Proto-Germanic *wabją
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

web · noun, proper noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*webʰ-
  2. Proto-Germanic*webaną
  3. Proto-Germanic*wabją
  4. Old Englishwebb
  5. Middle Englishweb
  6. English todayweb

From Middle English web, webbe, from Old English webb, from Proto-West Germanic *wabi, from Proto-Germanic *wabją (“web”), from Proto-Germanic *webaną (“to weave”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”). Cognates Cognate with Scots wab (“web”), North Frisian wääb (“web”), Saterland Frisian Wäb (“web”), West Frisian and Dutch web (“web”), Danish væv (“web”), Faroese vevur (“web”), Icelandic vefur (“web”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk vev (“web”), Swedish väv (“web”); also Cornish goghi (“wasps”), Irish foich, foiche, puch (“wasp”), Welsh gwchi (“drone”), Latin vespa (“wasp”), Ancient Greek ὑφή (huphḗ, “web”), ὑφαίνω (huphaínō, “to weave”) (whence Greek ανυφαίνω (anyfaíno), υφαίνω (yfaíno, “to weave”)), Albanian vej (“to weave”), Latvian lapsene (“wasp”), Lithuanian vapsvà (“wasp”), Old Prussian wobse (“wasp”), Belarusian аса́ (asá, “wasp”), Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, and Ukrainian оса́ (osá, “wasp”), Czech vosa (“wasp”), Polish, Slovak, and Slovene osa (“wasp”), Serbo-Croatian о̀са, òsa (“wasp”), Armenian մոզ (moz, “a kind of fly that bites horses and cattle”), Northern Kurdish moz (“hornet; wasp”), Persian بافتن (bâftan, “to weave”), Tocharian A wäp- (“to weave”), Tocharian B wāp- (“to weave”), Sanskrit उभ्नाति (ubhnāti, “to hurt, kill; to cover; fill”).

Web · proper noun2

Ellipsis of World Wide Web.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishweb all →

Webbe

Old Englishwebb all →

Proto-Germanic*webaną all →

weavewoofwaverweft

Proto-Indo-European*webʰ- all →

waveroverraveweavewafflewoofwhiffwaverwave in

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.