-wich town

A "-wich town" is a settlement in Anglo-Saxon England characterised by extensive artisanal activity and trade – an "emporium" – and supplied from outside the protected community. The name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon suffix -wīc, signifying "a dwelling or fortified place". Such settlements were usually coastal and many have left material traces found during excavation.

Eilert Ekwall wrote: "OE wīc, an early loan-word from Lat vicus, means ‘dwelling, dwelling-place; village, hamlet, town; street in a town; farm, esp. a dairy-farm’. . . . It is impossible to distinguish neatly between the various senses. Probably the most common meaning is ‘dairy-farm’. . . . In names of salt-working towns . . . wīc originally denoted the buildings connected with a salt-pit or even the town that grew up around it. But a special meaning ‘salt-works’, found already in DB, developed."

As well as -wich, -wīc was the origin of the endings -wyck and -wick, as, for example, in Papplewick, Nottinghamshire.

Wichí people

The Wichí are an indigenous people of South America. They are a large group of tribes ranging about the headwaters of the Bermejo River and the Pilcomayo River, in Argentina and Bolivia.

Notes on designation

This ethnic group was named by the English settlers and is still widely known as Mataco. The etymology of the term is obscure but in several sources, it is cited that the Wichí find the term derogatory. Among the group exists a folk etymology for this term, which relates it to the Spanish verb matar, to kill. Thus their preferred name, their own word for themselves, is Wichí, pronounced [wiˈci], and their language, Wichí Lhamtés [wiˈci ɬamˈtes].

There is a pronunciation variant in some areas of Bolivia, [wikˠiʡ], where the self-denomination of the group is Weenhayek wichi, translated by Alvarsson (1988) as "the different people" (pl. Weenhayey). Weenhayey informers of Alvarsson state that the old name was Olhamelh ([oɬameɬ]), meaning simply us. The subgroups within Wichí have been identified and received different names in literature: Nocten or Octenay in Bolivia, Véjos or (perhaps more properly) Wejwus or Wehwos for the Western subgroup(s), and Güisnay for the Eastern subgroups of Argentina. The latter corresponds to Tewoq-lhelej, "the river people".

Wichí (disambiguation)

Wichí typically refers to the Wichí people

Other uses include: