Wyke

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A settlement or village, typically forming part of a place name in England and other regions with Anglo-Saxon heritage
2. A residential area or hamlet, historically used in English toponymy to denote a small community or dwelling place
3. A village or inhabited locality, especially when appearing as a component of a geographic or historical place name

Etymology: "Wyke" is an English word meaning a bay or creek, or a dwelling or hamlet, depending on the region it turns up in. Its roots go back to Old English "wīċ," a word for a village or settlement. The same root gave us "wick," the place-name element familiar from many English towns and villages, so "wyke" and "wick" are essentially the same word appearing in different forms and regions. The word's most surprising feature is how far it has traveled from its original sense. The Old English "wīċ" was a settlement, often a farm or a dairy site, and in many places the name stuck to the settlement while the meaning shifted toward the features around it. In the north of England and in Scotland, the form "wyke" survived with the sense of a nook or a sheltered bay, sometimes a corner of a moor or a hollow where people or animals might shelter.