wicker

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English wiker, also wikir and wekir,^[2] of Scandinavian origin.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]} The OED specifies East Scandinavian and compares Middle Swedish and dialect Swedish viker and early Danish viger, meaning willow, osier or a branch of willow.^[3] Dialect Swedish also has vikker.^[9][10][11] The word comes from the root of vika (“to bend”),^{[3][6][8][10]} which Etymonline traces to Proto-Germanic *wik-, the source also of Old Norse víkja (“to move, turn”) and Old English wīcan (“to give way, yield”),^[4][9][3] and through it to Proto-Indo-European *weik- (“to bend, wind”).^[4][5] The word is thus related to weak and week.^[3][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wickerwork: the first record is wekirr in 1336, in a Scottish document,^[3][12] in the mid 14th century in Etymonline.^[4] The Middle English Dictionary has wyker in 1343, as material for thatching a penthouse.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The idea behind the word is the pliant twig, so the material and the twig have always shared it.^[4][10] The material comes first in the record,^[3][12] followed by the single rod before 1398,^[12] with a wicker for a mat already in the 15th century.^[2] Such a twig on the living plant is recorded from about 1507.^[3] Attributive use, for things made of the material, begins in 1502,^[3][12] and the verb from the noun, for fitting or covering with wicker, is recorded from 1600, in B. Jonson.^[3] Johnson (1755) entered wicker only as an adjective, "made of small sticks", with Spenser's basket and Milton's wicker hole.^[13] From 1646 a wicker could also be a basket, cradle or chair made of it.^[3] In Scots and Cumberland dialect it stayed in use for a switch or an osier twig.^[14] In the local use of the North Country it was a twig used as a mark, from 1825.^[3]

Timeline

• 1336 – wekirr, wickerwork.^[3][12]
• before 1398 – a pliant twig, a withe.^[12] The OED's first quotation is from 1426, in Lydgate.^[3]
• 1502 – attributive, made of wicker.^[3][12]
• c. 1507 – a twig on the living plant, in Dunbar.^[3]
• 1600 – verb, to fit or cover with wicker.^[3]
• 1646 – a basket, cradle, chair or the like made of wicker.^[3]
• 1825 – in the North Country, a twig used as a mark.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wickerwork; twigs plaited together: The chair's seat is made of wicker.^[3][9][15]
2. A slender, flexible twig, especially of willow, used for plaiting; an osier or withe.^[15][9][3]
3. Something made of wicker, such as a basket.^[9][3]

Adjective

1. Made of, consisting of or covered with wicker: a wicker hamper.^[15][9][3]

Verb

1. To cover or enclose with wicker.^[9][3][6]

Word family

• wickerwork
• wickered

Related words

• weak
• week
• wych elm

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins