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Origin and history of wicket

wicket(n.)

early 13c., wiket, "small door or gate," especially one forming part of a larger one, from Anglo-French wiket, Old North French wiket (Old French guichet, Norman viquet) "small door, wicket, wicket gate," probably from Proto-Germanic *wik- (source also of Old Norse vik "nook," Old English wican "to give way, yield"), from PIE root *weik- (2) "to bend, to wind." The notion is of "something that turns."

The sense in cricket of "set of three sticks defended by the batsman" is recorded from 1733; hence many figurative phrases in British English.

also from early 13c.

Entries linking to wicket

*weik-(2)

also *weig-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to bend, to wind."

It might form all or part of: vetch; vicar; vicarious; vice- "deputy, assistant, substitute;" viceregent; vice versa; vicissitude; weak; weakfish; week; wicker; wicket; witch hazel; wych.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit visti "changing, changeable;" Old English wac "weak, pliant, soft," wician "to give way, yield," wice "wych elm," Old Norse vikja "to bend, turn," Swedish viker "willow twig, wand," German wechsel "change."

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    Trends of wicket

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

    More to explore

    hoop
    late 12c., "circular band, flattened ring," probably from an unrecorded Old English *hop, from Proto-Germanic *hōp (source also of Old Frisian hop "a hoop, band," Middle Dutch and Dutch hoep "hoop," Old Norse hop "a small bay"). The original meaning must have been "curve; ring,"
    sticky
    Sticky wicket is 1952, from British slang, in reference to cricket, in reference to the yielding surface when wet....
    door
    general sense of "door, gate": dor (neuter; plural doru) "large door, gate," and duru (fem., plural dura) "door, gate, wicket...
    stump
    "sizeable part of a tree trunk left in the ground after felling," stumpe, implied from late 13c. in surnames; from mid-14c. as "remaining part of a severed arm or leg." It is from or cognate with Middle Low German stump (from an adjective meaning "mutilated, blunt, dull"), Middle
    pooh
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    opening
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    gate
    "opening, entrance," Old English geat (plural geatu) "gate, door, opening, passage, hinged framework barrier," from Proto-Germanic *gatan (source also of Old Norse gat "opening, passage," Old Saxon gat "eye of a needle, hole," Old Frisian gat "hole, opening," Dutch gat "gap, hole
    politics
    1520s, "science and art of government," from politic (n.) "the political state of a country or government (early 15c.), from Old French politique and Medieval Latin politica; see politic (adj.). The plural form probably was modeled on Aristotle's ta politika "affairs of state" (p
    sense
    late 14c., "meaning, signification, interpretation" (especially of Holy Scripture); c. 1400, "the faculty of perception;" from Old French sens "one of the five senses; meaning; wit, understanding" (12c.) and directly from Latin sensus "perception, feeling, undertaking, meaning,"
    mercy
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    Dictionary entries near wicket
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