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Etymology and origin of the English word wick

Pronunciation

wick1 of a candle

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1000
Inherited from
Proto-Germanic *weukā via Middle English, Old English
Ultimate origin
Proto-West Germanic *weukā

Etymology

The candle wick is inherited from Middle English weke, also wueke and later wicke,[2][3][1] inherited from Old English wēoce, also wēoc in candelwēoc,[4][5][6][7] inherited from Proto-West Germanic *weukā (“flax bundle; wick”).[1] It is cognate with Middle Dutch wiecke, now Dutch wiek, Middle Low German wēke and Old High German wiohha, now dialectal German Wieche.[4][5][2][3] The OED and Etymonline know no certain cognates outside Germanic,[4][3] and Hoad and the Shorter Oxford call it of unknown origin.[5][6] A connection has been suggested with Proto-Indo-European *weg- (“to weave”), seen in Old Irish figim (“I weave”) and Latin vēlum (“sail, veil”);[4][8][9] Barnhart derives the word from a reduplicated Proto-Germanic noun and relates it to wōcig (“noose”).[2] The short vowel of wick became general in the 17th century, replacing the long vowel of Middle English,[2][3] and the OED compares sick for the sound change.[4] Barnhart traces the form wicke (before 1376) perhaps to an unrecorded Old English *wice,[10] for which the OED finds no evidence.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The wick of a lamp or candle: Old English, where the word glosses the Latin words for a lamp wick, and weócan settan meant to put a wick to a lamp.[7][4] Barnhart dates the Old English word to about 1000.[2]

Semantic evolution

Wicks were made of rushes, tow or flax before cotton, and were once used in torches as well as lamps and candles.[4] Johnson (1755) defined the word as the substance round which the wax or tallow of a torch or candle is laid.[11] From 1391 it also named the material collectively, wicking;[4] from 1658 it was also a strip of material used in surgery as a tent or dressing.[4] The 20th century added colloquial phrases: to turn the wick up or down, to accelerate or slow an engine (1948);[4] to get on someone's wick, to irritate them, from 1945 in the OED[4] and 1937 in Green's Dictionary of Slang;[12] and to dip one's wick, of a man, to have sex, from 1958 in the OED and Etymonline.[4][3] Ayto and Green take the wick of these phrases to be short for Hampton Wick, rhyming slang for prick, and so a different word from the candle wick,[8][12][3] though Green records wick for the penis as early as 1834.[12] The verb, of a fabric drawing off moisture as a wick does, is dated 1949 by Merriam-Webster[13] and 1952 by the OED.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – Old English wēoce, the wick of a lamp or candle.[2][4]
  • before 1200 – Middle English wueke.[2]
  • 1391 – as a material, wicking.[4]
  • 1658 – a strip of material used as a surgical dressing.[4]
  • 1834 – the penis, implied in dip one's wick.[12] The OED's first record of the phrase is from 1958.[4]
  • 1937 – get on someone's wick, to annoy someone.[12] The OED dates it to 1945.[4][8]
  • 1948 – turn the wick up, to accelerate.[4]
  • 1949 – verb, to draw off a liquid like a wick.[13] The OED dates the verb to 1952.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cord or strip of loosely twisted or woven fibres in a candle, lamp or lighter, which draws up the fuel to the flame by capillary action.[14][13][4]
  2. A strip of gauze or similar material placed in a wound to drain it.[13][4]
  3. get on someone's wick (British, informal): to irritate someone: His constant whistling gets on my wick.[14][4]
  4. dip one's wick (slang): of a man, to have sex.[4][12]

Verb

  1. To draw off or carry a liquid by capillary action: The new running shirt wicks sweat away from the skin.[13][4][6]
  2. Of a liquid, to move through a material by capillary action.[4][6]

Word family

  • candlewick
  • lampwick
  • wicking
  • wickless

wick2 dwelling, village, farm

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Inherited
From
Latin vicus via Middle English, Old English
Ultimate origin
Latin vīcus
Etymology tree of wick2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin vicus
English wick
From the same root · wick2
Latin vicinus ← vicus

Etymology

The word for a dwelling, village or farm is inherited from Middle English wik,[13][9] inherited from Old English wīc (“dwelling place, abode”).[4][5][3][7] The word, like Old Frisian wīk, Old Saxon wīc and Old High German wīch, is probably an early Germanic borrowing from Latin vīcus (“row of houses, quarter of a town, street, village”),[4][5][6][13][3][15] the root idea being a collection of dwellings.[15] The same word survives in Dutch wijk (“quarter, district”) and in German Weichbild (“municipal area”).[4][5][3] The Latin noun is cognate with Ancient Greek οἶκος (oîkos, “house”),[4][5][6] and Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *weik- (“clan”).[3] The OED also counts Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌷𐍃 (weihs, “village”) among the cognates of the Latin word,[4] while Weekley takes the Gothic form too as a loan from Latin.[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

A dwelling or abode: Old English, in the translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History; the general sense was obsolete by about 1300.[4][7]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old English the word also meant a town, village or hamlet, and a farm.[4][5][7] The "village" sense is now obsolete or dialectal, but it survives in English place names in -wich and -wick;[4][15][8] Ayto notes that the wick of Hampton Wick, in south-west London, is this word.[8] The sense "dairy farm" was common in the 13th and 14th centuries, as in Gatwick, "goat farm",[3] and the OED finds it in Domesday Book.[4] From 1301 to 1811 wick was also a local word for an enclosed piece of ground.[4] In Wright's day the word was obsolete in the north and in East Anglia except in place names,[17] and Etymonline thinks it survives, if at all, only as a local word in East Anglia or Essex.[3] Old English also had the verb wīcian, to dwell or encamp, which lasted until about 1300.[4]

Timeline

  • Old English – a dwelling or abode (obsolete by about 1300).[4]
  • Old English – a town, village or hamlet.[4]
  • 11th century – a farm, especially a dairy farm, recorded in Domesday Book.[4][5]
  • 1301 – an enclosed piece of ground, a close (local, until 1811).[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (dialect) A farm, especially a dairy farm.[13][4]
  2. (obsolete or dialect) A town, village or hamlet; now chiefly as the ending of place names.[4][17]
  3. (obsolete, Old English–1300) A dwelling or abode.[4][6]

Usage notes

Several other rare words are spelled wick: a creek or small bay in Scotland and the north of England, from Old Norse vík, recorded from 1664;[4][6][13][17] the corner of the mouth or eye, a dialect word also of Norse origin;[6][13] a curling term of unknown origin;[4][13] and a northern dialect form of quick.[4][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  8. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  15. ^ a b c Smith, A. H. (1956), English Place-Name Elements, 2 vols. (English Place-Name Society 25–26), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  17. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)

Related etymologies

  • stall · also from Proto-Germanic
  • warmth · also from Proto-Germanic
  • foam · also from Proto-Germanic
  • mold · also from Proto-Germanic
  • worm · also from Proto-Germanic
  • dwarf · also from Proto-Germanic
  • deed · also from Proto-Germanic
  • crab · also from Proto-Germanic
Cite this entry

“Wick.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/wick. Accessed 1 Nov. 2026.

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