waver

The verb is derived from Middle English waveren (“to move back and forth, swing; to move unsteadily, totter; to shake, tremble; to wander; (figurative) to be changeable or unstable; to deviate”), and then possibly:

from Old English (compare Old English wǣfre (“flickering, quivering, wavering; active, nimble (?)”)), related to Old English wafian (“to wave”) from Proto-West Germanic *wabbjan (“to cause to weave; to entangle; to wrap”), from Proto-Germanic *wabjaną (“to cause to weave; to entangle; to wrap”); and/or

from Old Norse vafra (“to move unsteadily, flicker”), probably related to vefa (“to weave”);

both from Proto-Germanic *webaną (“to weave”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”). Doublet of wave.

The noun is derived from the verb.

Origin uncertain, possibly from waive (“(obsolete) to disregard, overlook”). According to the Oxford English Dictionary the early forms waiver, wayver, weaver