Editing Hwicce (section)

==Name==
The etymology of the name {{lang|ang|Hwicce}} "the Hwiccians" is uncertain. It is the plural of a masculine ''i''-stem. It may be from a tribal name of "the Hwiccians", or it may be from a clan name.

One etymology comes from the common noun {{lang|ang|[[:wikt:hwicce|hwicce]]}} "ark, chest, locker", in reference to the appearance of the territory as a flat-bottomed valley bordered by the [[Cotswolds]] and the [[Malvern Hills]].<ref>J. Insley, "Hwicce" in: Hoops (ed.) [[Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde]], vol. 15, Walter de Gruyter, 2000, {{ISBN|978-3-11-016649-1}}, p. 295.</ref> A second possibility would be a derivation from a given name, "the people of the man called Hwicce", but no such name has been recorded.<ref>William Henry Duignan, ''Notes on Staffordshire place names'', 1902.</ref><ref>A. H. Smith, 'The Hwicce', in Medieval and Linguistic Studies in Honour of F. P. Magoun (1965), 56-65.</ref> [[Eilert Ekwall]] connected the name, on linguistic grounds, with that of the {{lang|ang|[[Gewisse]]}}, the predecessors of the [[West Saxons]].<ref>Eilert Ekwall, ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names'' (Oxford Clarendon Press, reprinted 1991){{Page needed|date=January 2012}}</ref> Also suggested by [[Albert Hugh Smith|A. H. Smith]] is a tribal name that was in origin pejorative, meaning "the cowards", cognate to ''quake'', [[Old Norse]] {{lang|non|hvikari}} "coward". It is also likely that "Hwicce" referred to the native tribes living along the banks of the [[River Severn]], in the area of today's [[Worcester, England|Worcester]], who were weavers using rushes and reeds growing profusely to create baskets. The modern word ''wicker'', which is thought to be of Scandinavian origin, describes the type of baskets produced by these early people. However, there are potential objections to many of these possible explanations. For instance, [[Richard Coates]] argues that the essence of an ark is that it is closed, rather than open like a valley or plain, that no cognate of {{lang|non|hvikari}} or contemporary version of ''wicker'' is known, and that no full etymological argument to relate {{lang|ang|Gewisse}} to {{lang|ang|Hwicce}} has been advanced.<ref>{{harvnb|Coates|2013|pp=4–5}}</ref>

[[Stephen James Yeates|Stephen Yeates]] (2008, 2009) has interpreted the name as meaning "cauldron; sacred vessel" and linked to the shape of the Vale of Gloucester and the [[Romano-British culture|Romano-British]] regional cult of a goddess with a bucket or cauldron, identified with a {{lang|la|Mater [[Dobunni|Dobunna]]}}, supposedly associated with [[West Country]] legends concerning the [[Holy Grail]].<ref>Stephen J. Yeates, ''The Tribe of Witches: The religion of the Dobunni and Hwicce'', Oxbow Books (2008). Stephen Yeates, ''A Dreaming for the Witches'' (2009).</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=January 2012}} However, his interpretation has been widely dismissed by other academics.<ref>{{harvnb|Coates|2013|p=5}} for instance</ref>

Coates (2013) on the other hand believes that the name has a [[Brythonic languages|Brythonic]] origin, related to the modern Welsh {{lang|cy|gwych}}<ref name="Coates2013_9">{{harvnb|Coates|2013|p=9}}</ref> meaning 'excellent'.<ref>{{cite web|title=Gwych|url=https://geiriadur.uwtsd.ac.uk/index.php?page=ateb&term=gwych&direction=we&type=all&whichpart=exact&submit=Search|website=Geiriadur: Welsh-English / English-Welsh On-line Dictionary|publisher=University of Wales Trinity St David}}</ref> The prefix {{lang|cy|hy-}} is an emphatic (roughly meaning 'very') giving something similar to *{{lang|cy|hywych}}. Similar known constructions in Welsh include {{lang|cy|hydda}} '(very) good', {{lang|cy|hynaws}} 'good-natured', {{lang|cy|hylwydd}} 'successful', {{lang|cy|hywiw}} '(very) worthy' and {{lang|cy|hywlydd}} '(very) generous'.<ref name="Coates2013_9"/> Coates notes that the meaning would be "comparable with bombastic British tribal names of the Roman period, such as [[Ancalites]] 'the very hard ones', [[Catuvellauni]] 'the battle-excellent ones' or [[Brigantes]] 'the high ones'."<ref name="Coates2013_9"/> Coates does, however, admit that his explanation can also raise objections, not least that {{lang|cy|hywych}} is not a recorded and known early or later Welsh word.

The toponym {{lang|ang|Hwicce}} survives in [[Wychwood]] in [[Oxfordshire]], [[Whichford]] in Warwickshire, [[Wichenford]], [[Wychbury Hill]], [[Wyche, Worcestershire|Wyche]] and [[Droitwich]] in [[Worcestershire]]. (The 'wich' part of Droitwich is also commonly thought to refer to salt production in that area.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}) In addition, the local government district of [[Wychavon]] derived the first element of its name from the old kingdom.