Webster is an English and Scottish occupational name that described a weaver, and comes from early Middle English webbe, from Old English webba, which is a primary derivative of wefan ‘to weave.’
This word webba (Think WE-ba) became Webb in some cases, and survived into Middle English long enough to give rise to the surname, but was already obsolete as an agent noun; hence the secondary forms with the agent suffixes -er and -ster to become Webster.
If you used the Old English – webba – for weave and wanted to indicate the man who was doing the weaving – adding ‘ster’ (one of the suffixes that means the-man-who), you’d have webbe-ster, or in its contracted form, Webster.
The man who weaves.
Statesman and US Senator Daniel Webster was a weaver of words, and was well-respected as an orator.
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