Wefts

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A set of horizontal threads woven across the length of fabric, used in textile production to create patterns
2. The threads that are woven back and forth through the warp in order to form a fabric, crucial in weaving techniques
3. Strands that serve as the basis for patterns in woven textiles, providing the fabric's structure and design

Etymology: "Wefts" is the plural of "weft," the threads that run across a loom from side to side, passing over and under the warp threads to form cloth. The surprising link is that the word is built from the verb "weave" itself: it descends from Old English "wefan," meaning "to weave," with the suffix "-t" added to turn the action into a thing, much as "theft" comes from "thieve." That "-t" suffix is an abstract nominal ending, so the word literally named the result of weaving, the woven material or the act of weaving, before it came to mean the individual cross-threads. Its Middle English form "wefte" carried the same sense, linking the modern term directly to the earliest English textile vocabulary.