Wicke

Meaning

1. (feminine) vetch (Vicia gen. et spp.)
2. (feminine, obsolete) something worthless, a bugger
3. (colloquial, feminine, regional) state of failure, wreckedness, only in the following constructions

Concepts

vetch

sweet pea

tare

vetche

Synonyms

Erbse

Translations

wikke

vesce

arveja

veza

veça

veccia

ervilhaca

burçak

vesce

pisello odoroso

mürdümük

ervilha-de-cheiro

algarroba

guisante de olor

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈvɪkə/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle High German: wicke

Inherited from Old High German: wicka

In summary

From Middle High German wicke, from Old High German wicka, from Proto-West Germanic *wikkjā. 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.