| 释义 |
▪ I. wich, wych local.|wɪtʃ, locally waɪtʃ|
Also 7 wietch.
[app. a differentiated variant of wick n.2; cf. ditch and dike (OE. díc), lich and lyke (OE. líc). The orig. meaning may have been the group of buildings connected with a salt-pit. The chief names of salt-making towns in which the word occurs are Droitwich (formerly Wich) in Worcestershire, Middlewich, Nantwich, and Northwich in Cheshire.]
A salt-works, salt-pit, or brine-spring, in the salt-manufacturing district of Cheshire and neighbouring parts; pl. the salt-making towns of these parts.
716–17in Birch Cartul. Sax. I. 203 Aliquam agelli partem in qua sal confici solet ad meridianam plagam fluminis quod dicunt Saluuerpe, in loco qui dicitur Lootwic et Coolbeorg.
1086Domesday Bk., Cheshire 268 In eodem Mildestvic Hvndredo erat tercium Wich quod uocatur Norvvich,..Ipsæ leges & consuetudines erant ibi quæ erant in alijs Wiches... Cætera omnia in his Wichis sunt similia. 11..(spurious charter) in Birch Cartul. Sax. I. 203 Wich... Unam portionem mansionis in Wico emptorio salis quem nos Saltwich vocamus. c1250Matth. Paris Chron. Majora an. 1245 (Rolls) IV. 486 Rex insuper puteos fecerat salinarum de Witz obturari et everti.
1601Holland Pliny xxxi. vii. II. 415 In Chaonia there be certaine springs of saltish water, which the people of that country doe boile, and when it is cooled againe, it turneth into salt. margin, This is the order of salt with us in our Wiches here in England. 1610― Camden's Brit. i. 607 These are verie famous Salt-wiches [Camden salinæ],.. where brine or salt water is drawne out of pittes. Ibid. 608 The Britans call it Hellath wen, that is, The white Wich or Salt pitte. 1612Drayton Poly-olb. iii. 265 But that which vext her most, was, that..th' Wyches for their Salts such state on them should take. 1613A. Standish New Direct. 15 In Cheshire neere vnto the Wietches (where Salt is made..). 1682J. Collins Salt & Fish. 2 At Namptwich they have one Pit within the Town, and two without,..the Bryne being..of a weaker kind than those of the other Wyches. 1810Lysons Magna Brit. II. 699. 1860 W. White All round Wrekin 88 There lies the region of salt-mines, and of the wyches or brine springs which began to flow long before Henry III stopped the works at Nantwich.
b. Comb.: wich-(wych-)house, a building in which brine is evaporated for making salt; wich-man, a man employed in salt-making; wich-waller, a salt-boiler; † wich-work = wich-house.
1534(12 May) Ancient Deeds C. 7583 (P.R.O.) Rauff Maynwaryng of Mydlewiche sendeth gretyng..that where Richard Leftwiche the younger and Margret his wyff have giffen..all their meses *wiche houses landes..to Richard Maynwaryng [etc.]. 1559Lanc. Wills (Chetham Soc. 1861) 125 My hole estate of halffe a wyche house in the Northewyche wtin the countye of Chester. 1610Holland Camden's Brit. i. 608 Troughes..by which it [sc. brine] is carried into the wichhouses. 1756C. Lucas Ess. Waters II. 35 The houses in which the salt works are carried on are called also wich-houses. 1818J. W. Platt Hist. Nantwich 78 Earl Edwin had a wych-house upon his estate at Aughton.
1688Holme Armoury iii. 161/2 A Salter, or Salt-Man, or *Wich-Man.
1670Ray Prov. 208 To scold like a *wych-waller.
1298in Rogers Agric. & Prices (1866) I. xix. 456 [The saltern in which the brine was evaporated is called a] *wychwerke.
▪ II. wich, wiche
obs. ff. which, witch. |