Origin and history of woof

"to bend, twist, distort," c. 1400, a sense shift in Middle English werpen "hasten, rush toward; throw, fling, hurl;" from Old English weorpan "to throw, throw away, hit with a missile."

This is from Proto-Germanic *werpanan "to fling by turning the arm" (source also of Old Saxon werpan, Old Norse verpa "to throw," Swedish värpa "to lay eggs," Old Frisian werpa, Middle Low German and Dutch werpen, German werfen, Gothic wairpan "to throw").

The Germanic word is reconstructed to be from PIE *werp- "to turn, wind, bend," from root *wer- (2) "to turn, bend." The prehistoric connection between "turning" and "throwing" is perhaps rotating the arm in the act of throwing; compare Old Church Slavonic vrešti "to throw," from the same PIE root.

In English, the meaning "become crooked or bent" is by late 14c.; the transitive sense of "twist or bend (something) out of shape, give a cast to turn out of straightness or proper shape" is by c. 1400.

Hence the extended or figurative senses of "pervert, distort, turn from rectitude" (judgment, vision, etc.), attested by 1590s; in reference to accounts, facts, by 1717. Related: Warped; warping.

Also, via the old notion of "throw, hurl," the verb in Middle English could mean "expel, cast out; produce (crops); shed horns (of an animal); utter (words, a cry); take off clothing." As "lay a warp in preparation for weaving" it is attested by c. 1300, of a spider.

Nautical warping (1510s) is "working (a vessel) forward by means of a rope fastened to something fixed;" compare warp-rope (late 13c.).

Middle English weven, from Old English wefan "practice the craft of weaving; form by interlacing yarn," figuratively "devise, contrive, arrange" (class V strong verb; past tense wæf, past participle wefen), from Proto-Germanic *weban (source also of Old Norse vefa, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch, Dutch weven, Old High German weban, German weben "to weave").

This is reconstructed to be from PIE root *(h)uebh- "to weave;" also "to move quickly" (source also of Sanskrit ubhnati "he laces together," Persian baftan "to weave," Greek hyphē, hyphos "web," Old English webb "web").

The form of the past tense altered in Middle English from wave to wove. The extended sense of "combine into a whole" is from late 14c.; the meaning "go by twisting and turning" is from 1640s. To weave together "make (two things) one by weaving" is from late 14c. Related: Wove; woven; weaving.