An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

The vertical twisting of a → galactic disk in its outer parts. Many → spiral galaxies, including our Milky Way, appear to have warps in the outer reaches of their stellar and gas disks. The rotating body of stars and gas that characterizes a spiral galaxy is generally flat, but the outer regions may deviate from the plane of the disk. The causes are multiple, some warps can come from spontaneous instability, some result from interactions between galaxies, and many reflect the external gas → accretion from intergalactic matter filaments.

Etymology (EN): M.E. werpen, OE weorpan “to throw;” cf. O.S. werpan, O.N. verpa “to throw,” Swed. värpa “to lay eggs,” Du. werpen, Ger. werfen “to throw; to distort.” Related to warp “threads running lengthwise in a fabric.”

Etymology (PE): Tâb “twisting, bending, waving, a curling lock,” variants tâv, tow, tew, from tâbidan, tâftan “to twist, to spin, to bend, to crook,” p.p.
tâftah “spun, silk or linen cloth,” loaned into E. as taffeta (from O.Fr. taffetas, from It. taffeta); similarly Gk. tapetion “little carpet” is probably from this Iranian origin (from which tapestry, tapis); Proto-Ir. *tâp- “to twist, to wind;” cf. L. tempus “time (span);” Lith. tempti “to stretch;” Russ. tepsti “to tighten.”