Wicke

See also: wicke

German

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈvɪkə/
  • Hyphenation: Vi‧cke
  • (pre-1996) Hyphenation: Vik‧ke

Etymology 1

From Middle High German wicke, from Old High German wicka, from Latin vicia. The sense of a worthless item derives from the opposition to cereal plants; now “Wicke” is rather praised as an ornamental plant.

The idiom “in die Wicken gehen”, not to be tracked further than the nineteenth century and still rather rare, is less common with this noun than with Binsen and derives either from that old antithesis or from the idea of hunted game being lost when it has alighted in the plants. With other verbs it is only transferred.

Noun

Wicke f (genitive Wicke, plural Wicken)

  1. vetch (Vicia gen. et spp.)
  2. (obsolete) something worthless, a bugger
  3. (regional, colloquial) state of failure, wreckedness, only in the following constructions:
    Der Motor ist in die Wicken gegangen. ― The motor has given up.
    Der Regisseur hat den Film in die Wicken geritten. ― The director has marred the movie.
Declension
Declension of Wicke
singular plural
indef. def. noun def. noun
nominative eine die Wicke die Wicken
genitive einer der Wicke der Wicken
dative einer der Wicke den Wicken
accusative eine die Wicke die Wicken

Noun

Wicke f (genitive Wicke, plural Wicken)

  1. alternative form of Wieche
    1842, Dieterich, G. Ludwig, Die Krankheits-Familie Syphilis, volume 2: Besonderer Theil, Landshut: v. Vogel’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 350:
    Bei breiten Nasenlöchern kann man Wicken, von Scharpie gedreht, nehmen.
    With broad nostrils one can take wicks twisted from lint.
Declension
Declension of Wicke
singular plural
indef. def. noun def. noun
nominative eine die Wicke die Wicken
genitive einer der Wicke der Wicken
dative einer der Wicke den Wicken
accusative eine die Wicke die Wicken

Further reading
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