wicket [ME] In Middle English a wicket was a small door or gate made in, or beside, a larger one, so that people could get in or out without needing the time and effort to open the heavy main gate. From there it became any small gate for pedestrians, or a small opening such as a loophole or grill. The use of wicket in *cricket is first found in the mid 17th century, and the connection between the two is more easily understood if you know that at first a wicket consisted of two stumps with one long bail. The word entered English from Northern French dialect wiket, a form of French guichet, still the French word for a ticket office. The trail is not clear before the French source, but the word may be Germanic in origin, related to Old Norse vikja ‘to move, turn’.