Other forms: wickers
Wicker is thin flexible twigs woven into baskets and chairs. A wicker basket, a wicker chair, woven wicker.
Willow is the usual material because it grows fast and bends without breaking, and it is cut in winter when the sap is down. The word names the technique rather than the plant. Wicker furniture is strong for its weight because the weave spreads the load.
1nounwickerThin flexible twigs woven into baskets and furniture.
“We sat on the porch in old wicker chairs, drinking lemonade.”
wicker is a material.
Middle English wiker comes from a Scandinavian root related to Old Norse veikr, weak or pliant. Weak is a relative.
Middle English
wiker
English, today
wicker
From Middle English wiker, cognate with gmq-osw vikker (“willow”), Old Norse veikr (“weak”), English weak.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA