1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Web

WEB (a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Du. webbe, Dan. vaev, Ger. Gewebe, all from the Teutonic wabh—to weave), that which is woven (see Weaving). The word is thus applied to anything resembling a web of cloth, to the vexillum of the feather of a bird, to the membrane which connects the toes of many aquatic birds and some aquatic mammals; it is particularly used of the “cobweb,” the net spun by the spider, the Old English name for which was átor-coppe, i.e. poison-head (átor, poison, and coppe, tuft or head). In architecture the term “web” is sometimes given, in preference to “panel,” to the stone shell of a vault resting on the ribs and taking its winding surface from the same; see Vault.