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All through history, availability of salt has been pivotal to civilization. In Britain, the suffix "-wich" in a placename means it was once a source of salt, as
by wombatmobile 6y ago
All through history, availability of salt has been pivotal to civilization. In Britain, the suffix "-wich" in a placename means it was once a source of salt, as in Sandwich and Norwich.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_salt https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_salt
- pacaro 6y agoIIRC the Norfolk Broads (an interconnected series of lakes and waterways in the same part of the country as Norwich and Ipswich) were dug by the Romans who burned peat to make salt We get the word salary from salt too
- krylon 6y agoIt is not even 8am, and I learned something interesting already. Thank you very much!
- gerdesj 6y agoSource "King of the North" by Max Adams: "The Old English ending -wic ... means farm, as in Keswick (cheese farm), or Goswick (goose farm) ... but it might denote a periodic, opportunistic beach market ... for example Lundenwic (London), Gypeswic (Ipswitch) and so on."
- phaemon 6y agoIt seems it came to be applied to farms in some areas, but it was more widely used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-wich_town https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-wich_town