Learnings: What's a "Wic?"

The words "wic" and "vic" referred to an emporium, a place of exchange or trade where scales like these might have been used to weight silver. When looking at a historical map of Northern and Western Europe, one can see many towns whose names end this way, suggesting that they were once trading centres like Jorvik.
There is a theory that the word "vic", combined with "-ingr", is at the root of the word "Viking" itself. "Ingr" means "those who belong to." Together with "vic", it creates "those who belong to the place of trade or exchange." The Vikings may have been called Vikings because they were travelling from trading centre to trading centre; from vic to vic. The word "vik" also means "bay", or "inlet", in Old Norse, which could also be at the root of the word "Viking."
Category:Discovery Tour: Viking Age