warp
Definitions
General English
- verb to have a bad effect on someone’s mind or character
Cars & Driving
- noun threads in cloth that run along the length of the material
Construction
- Distortion in the shape of a plane surface, such as that in lumber as a result of a change in moisture content.
Economics
- (written as WARP)weak axiom of revealed preference.
- acronym forWeak axiom of revealed preference (written as WARP)
Electronics
- To become bent or twisted out of shape. Also, to be in such a state.
- To deviate from a proper or desired course, or to otherwise affect in a manner that perturbs such a course. Also, such a deviation. Said, for instance, of a distortion in the amplitude values of an otherwise symmetrical wave.
Publishing
- verb to bend or curve because of damp conditions
Origin & History of “warp”
Warp originally meant ‘throw’ (‘Saint Paul’s head after his decease in a deep vewar (fishpond) warped was’, Scottish Legends of the Saints 1375). The notion of ‘bending’ or ‘twisting’ is a secondary development (first recorded in the 14th century). Its immediate inspiration may have been the related Old Norse past participle orpinn ‘warped’, but the underlying motivation was no doubt a conceptual link between ‘throwing’ and ‘twisting’, presumably via ‘throw with a twisting action’ (it is probably no coincidence that English throw originally meant ‘twist’). The word came from a prehistoric Germanic base *werb-, which also produced German werfen and Dutch werpan ‘throw’. this was probably descended from Indo-European *wer-, source also of Latin vertere ‘turn’, from which English gets revert, version, etc.
