vicusn.
/ˈvʌɪkəs//ˈviːkəs/ Archaeology.
In the Roman Empire: a village or settlement; spec. the smallest unit of ancient Roman municipal administration, consisting of a village, part of a town, etc. Hence also used of some medieval European townships.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town, village, or collection of dwellings > [noun]
thorpc725
homeeOE
byc950
castlec1000
wickc1000
streeta1325
placec1390
plecka1576
bourgade1601
township1602
townreda1613
ville1837
vicus1842
ham1864
stad1896
1842 W. Smith Dict. Greek & Rom. Antiq. 1039/2 Augustus..made the vici subdivisions of the fourteen regions into which he divided the city.
1874 W. Stubbs Constit. Hist. I. v. 82 The unit of the constitutional machinery [in Anglo-Saxon England] is the township, the villata or vicus.
1961 L. Mumford City in Hist. viii. 211 Though the [ancient Roman] town might be divided into vici—neighborhoods or quarters, with their own minor centers and markets—there was nothing in the street network itself that served to identify this unit or make its life more cohesive.
1962 H. R. Loyn Anglo-Saxon Eng. ii. 83 The new name of Duurstede made its appearance for the first time in the ninth century, the vicus by Duurstede (Wijk-bij-Duurstede).
1986 Carmarthenshire Antiquary XXII. 3 (heading) Recent survey on the fort and vicus at Pumsaint.
1989 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 316/2 Smaller trade settlements (portus, or vicus) emerged at Tournai, Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Dinant, Namur, Huy, Liège, and Maastricht.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1993; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1842