Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
Wick (plural wicks) Noun: a bundle, twist, braid, or woven strip of cord, fabric, fiber, or other porous material in a candle, oil lamp, kerosene heater, or the like, that draws up liquid fuel, such as melted tallow, wax, or the oil, delivering it to the base of the flame for conversion to gases and burning; any other length of material burned for illumination in small successive portions... Any piece of porous material that conveys liquid by capillary action; e.g. a strip of gauze placed in a wound to serve as a drain.
(curling) A narrow opening in the field, flanked by other players' stones.(curling) A shot where the played stone touches a stationary stone just enough that the played stone changes direction. Derived terms: get on one's wick.

Verb: to wick (third-person singular simple present wicks, present participle wicking, simple past and past participle wicked).To convey or draw off (liquid) by capillary action.
The fabric wicks perspiration away from the body. (intransitive, of a liquid) To traverse (i.e. be conveyed by capillary action) through a wick or other porous material, as water through a sponge. Usually followed by through.The moisture slowly wicked through the wood. (curling) To strike (a stone) obliquely; to strike (a stationary stone) just enough that the played stone changes direction.
Etymology (2) From earlier Middle English wik, wich ("'village, hamlet, town'"); from Old English wic ("'dwelling place, abode'"); Germanic borrowing from Latin vicus ("'village, estate'") (see vicinity). Came to mean "dairy farm" around 13th-14th century (e.g. Gatwick "Goat-farm"). Compare cognates: Old High German wîch, wih ("'village'"), German Weichbild ("'municipal area'"), Dutch wijk ("'quarter, district'"), Ancient Greek ????? (oikos), "'house'"), Old Frisian wik, Old Saxon wic ("'village'"). Present in compounds (meaning "village", "jurisdiction", or "harbour"), as, bailiwick, Warwick, Greenwick, Southwick, Hampton Wick, etc., also -wich.
Noun: (British, dialect, chiefly East Anglia and Essex) A farm, especially a dairy farm.(archaic) A village; hamlet; castle; dwelling; street; creek; bay; harbour; a place of work, jurisdiction, or exercise of authority. Etymology (3) From Old English cwic ("'alive'"); similar to an archaic meaning of quick ("'endowed with life; having a high degree of vigor, energy, or activity'"), and quicken ("'come to life'"). Adjective: wick (comparative wicker or more wick, superlative wickest or most wick). (British, dialect, chiefly Yorkshire) Alive; lively; full of life; active; bustling; nimble; quick: as wick as an eel....I'll skin ye wick! (skin you alive) I thowt they was dead last back end but they're wick enif noo."Are you afraid of going across the churchyard in the dark?" "Lor' bless yer noä miss! It isn't dead uns I'm scar'd on, it's wick uns." I'll swop wi' him my poor dead horse for his wick. - Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England, page 210 wick: (British, dialect, chiefly Yorkshire) Liveliness; life.I niver knew such an a thing afore in all my wick. - Ashby, 12 July 1875 (British, dialect, chiefly Yorkshire) The growing part of a plant nearest to the roots. Fed close? Why, it's eaten into t' hard wick. (spoken of a pasture which has been fed very close). A maggot. Retrieved from "http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/wick"

Witch (etymology) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: The word witch derives from the Old English nouns wicca /'w?tt??/ (masc.) "sorcerer, wizard" and wicce /'w?tt?e/ (fem.) "sorceress, witch". The word's further origins in Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European are unclear.
The verb wiccian has a cognate in Middle Low German wicken (attested from the 13th century, besides wichelen). The Icelandic Vikti or Vikta.[clarification needed]
The exact etymology of wicce is problematic.The OED states that the noun is "apparently" deverbal (derived from wiccian), but for the verb merely states that it is "of obscure origin". Grimm, Deutsches Wörterbuch connect the "Ingvaeonic word" *wikkon with Gothic weihs "sacred" (Proto-Indo European (PIE) *weik- "to separate, to divide", probably via early Germanic practices of cleromancy such as those reported by Tacitus,[but also consider *weik- "to curve, bend" (which became wicken "hop, dance") and *weg'h- "to move" (in a sense of "to make mysterious gestures"). Barbara G. Walker gives prominence to this origin, which she believes refers to the witch's ability to bend and shape the threads of reality....The Online Etymology Dictionary states a "possible connection to Gothic weihs "holy" and Germanic weihan "consecrate," and writes, "the priests of a suppressed religion naturally become magicians to its successors or opponents." R. Lühr connects wigol "prophetic, mantic", wiglian "to practice divination" (Middle Low German wichelen "bewitch", wicker "soothsayer") and suggests Proto-Germanic *wigon, geminated (c.f. Verschärfung) to *wikkon....The American Heritage Dictionary connects PIE *weg'- "rouse" (English wake), and offers the Proto-Germanic reconstruction *wikkjaz "one who wakes the dead"...
Walter William Skeat derived the word from PIE *weid-, Old English wita "wise man, wizard" and witan "to know", considering it a corruption of an earlier *witga. No Old English spelling with -t- is known, and this etymology is not accepted today.Robert Graves in his 1948 The White Goddess, in discussing the willow which was sacred to the Greek goddess Hecate, connects the word to a root *wei- which connotes bending or pliance[8], by saying: "Its connection with witches is so strong in Northern Europe, that the words 'witch' and 'wicked' are derived from the same ancient word for willow, which also yields 'wicker'." This confounds English and Scandinavian evidence, since the weak root in English has no connection with willows, and Old Norse has no word for "witch" cognate to the English. Old English also had hægtesee "witch, fury", whence Modern English hag, of uncertain origin, but cognate to German Hexe, from an Old High German haga-zussa, Common Germanic *haga-tusjon- (OED), perhaps from a *tesvian "to mar, damage", meaning "field-damager" (the suggestion of Grimm). The element hag- originally means "fence, wooden enclosure", and hence also "enclosed fields, cultivated land".Other Old English synonyms of wicca and wicce include gealdricge, scinlæce, hellrúne.[citation needed] The Old English plural form for both the masculine and feminine nouns was wiccan (= "witches") and wiccecræft was "witchcraft". The earliest recorded use of the word is in the Laws of Ælfred which date to circa 890.In the homilies of the Old English grammarian Ælfric, dating to the late tenth century we find:Ne sceal se cristena befrinan tha fulan wiccan be his gesundfulnysse.A Christian should not consult foul witches concerning his prosperity.In both these examples wiccan is the plural noun, not an adjective. The adjective fulan (foul) can mean "physically unclean" as well as "morally or spiritually unclean" or "wicked". In Old English glossaries the words wicce and wicca are used to gloss such Latin terms as hariolus, conjector, and pythonyssa, all of which mean "diviner", "soothsayer", which suggests a possible role of fortune-teller for the witch in Anglo-Saxon times. The word wicca is associated with animistic healing rites in Halitgar's Latin Penitential...From Old to Modern English: The Middle English word wicche did not differentiate between masculine and feminine, however the masculine meaning became less common in Standard English, being replaced by words like "wizard" and "warlock". The modern spelling witch with the medial 't' first appears in the 16th century. In current colloquial English "witch" is almost exclusively applied to women,[citation needed] and the OED has "now only dialectal" for the masculine noun.Figurative use to refer to a bewitching young girl begins in the 18th century, while wiche as a contemptuous term for an old woman is attested since the 15th century. "A witch of Endor" (alluding to 1 Samuel 28:7) as a fanciful term for a medium appears in 19th century literature.The meaning "an adherent of Wicca" (male or female) is due to Gerald Gardner's purported "Witch Cult", and now appears as a separate meaning of the word also in mainstream dictionaries. For example, Monier-Williams currently distinguishes four meanings of the noun witch,1. one that is credited with usually malignant supernatural powers; especially: a woman practicing usually black witchcraft often with the aid of a devil or familiar : sorceress - compare warlock2. an ugly old woman : hag 3. a charming or alluring girl or woman 4. a practitioner of Wicca.[...] English weak; Grimm s.v. Weide wicker an East Scandinavian loan, entering the English language in the 14th century. The English cognate of the root yields withy, and the "willow" word in all old Germanic languages has the dental (Old Norse víðir). The wicker word is in fact from the *weik- root employed for "hop, dance" etymology considered by Grimm, irrespective of willows. See Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. witch n2, witch, wych n3. (Online edition, accessed 5/9/07) Oxford English Dictionary Online, 2nd Edition (1989).Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_(etymology)" Categories: Witchcraft | Etymologies

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