wicket fence

[birdeen's call]

What's a wicket fence? I know what a wicket is and I know what a fence is but the words don't want to match for me. Is it this?
http://awbsltd.com/shop/uploads/images_products_large/855.jpg

If so, why is it called that?

 

[Chicchick]

I would call it a picket fence.

They are often painted white.

A white picket fence around a garden would be a typical thing to find surrounding an English country cottage.

A wicket is found in a game of cricket.

 

[birdeen's call]

Thanks, so it must have been a typo. I didn't know these upright wooden parts were pickets. Can any longer, pointy wooden thing be called a picket? I knew this word from military contexts.

Also, are the horizontal bars in the fence rails?

 

[bhaisahab]

Thanks, so it must have been a typo. I didn't know these upright wooden parts were pickets. Can any longer, pointy wooden thing be called a picket? I knew this word from military contexts.

Also, are the horizontal bars in the fence rails?

Yes, they are called rails. I agree with the previous poster that it's a picket fance, however, there is such a thing as a "wicket gate". file:///tmp/moz-screenshot.png

 

[chevalier]

Yes, they are called rails. I agree with the previous poster that it's a picket fence, however, there is such a thing as a "wicket gate". file:///tmp/moz-screenshot.png

Not a teacher nor a native.

Everything would be okay, but I've seen the term "wicket fence" at the official website of Royal Comission of Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland:
Site Record for Inverkeithing Station, East Block With Wicket Fence South Bound Platform Details
"Wicket fence" is surely not a misspelling of "picket fence", for there is no way to press "w" instead of "p" on the keyboard, and "w" is totally different phoneme than "p"; if it would be a typo, I would rather say that the word misspelled was "wicker". But, considering aforementioned website, I believe it could be a synonym for "picket fence", which origin is still unknown for me.

 

[birdeen's call]

"Wicket fence" is surely not a misspelling of "picket fence", for there is no way to press "w" instead of "p" on the keyboard, and "w" is totally different phoneme than "p".

Well, misspellings don't have to originate on the keyboard. They can come from the mind. And then, I agree that /p/ and /w/ are different (not totally though), but the words are very similar.

But your example does surely make the typo theory weaker... I did a google search and although the advantage of "picket" is huge, there are many hits for "wicket" too.

 

[chevalier]

Well, misspellings don't have to originate on the keyboard. They can come from the mind. And then, I agree that /p/ and /w/ are different (not totally though), but the words are very similar.

Well, there are two main causes of misspellings (I am purposedly omitting the case when the letter is doubling):
- keyboard typo - when two letters are near on the keyboard,
- pronunciation typo - when two letters sound alike (and that comes from the mind),
but none of them fits the case of picket/wicket. They are very simmilar, but that is not everything. I have never heard sounds "p" and "w" mispronounced; as you probably know "p" is a plosive, and "w" is a fricative. I can not really imagine a way to confuse them.

But - your question is very interesting, and if I will learn something about it, you'll be the first person to know it.

 

[birdeen's call]

I agree, it's hard to imagine that. But I don't agree these are the only causes for misspellings. Our minds can err in amazing ways. My theory is this: generally and originally, it's a picket fence which is because it's made of pickets. But, picket fences are likely too have wickets too. And taking this into account it's much easier for me to imagine how some people could start mistaking one word for the other. They couldn't remember the exact name (bear in mind that both words are not among the most common) so they took the first one that sounded familiar and made at least a little sense.

Maybe you won't like to call such a process a misspelling. You might say it's mistaking one word for another. Well, that's not so important.

That's just a theory which can well be proven false. Anyway, it is very interesting to me too. Call me a word freak if you want... ;-)

 

[Barb_D]

You've missed another cause: you make a typo, you get the red squiggly line under it, and your right click and pick one of the ones offered -- but you pick the wrong one.

I've done that with some pretty entertaining results.

So the person originally typed, say, oicket. The red lines appear. You click on the wrong spot - you choose wicket, or even ticket, instead of picket. You don't notice and keep moving on.

 

[birdeen's call]

"w" is a fricative.

I've just noticed it. The sound denoted by "w" in "wicket" (/w/ in the IPA) is not a fricative. You must have mistaken it for /v/.

 

[chevalier]

You've missed another cause: you make a typo, you get the red squiggly line under it, and your right click and pick one of the ones offered -- but you pick the wrong one.

I've missed many causes, and that is why I wrote 'two main causes'. But I've seen 'wicket fence' in the scientific article published in 1932, that is why I think that typo-theory is erroneous and I must reject it.

I've just noticed it. The sound denoted by 'w' in 'wicket' (/w/ in the IPA) is not a fricative. You must have mistaken it for /v/.

OK. It's an approximant. But that does not change the fact that /w/ is totally different than /p/.

Now back to the point. In medicine, there is something called 'wicket spike' and 'wicket rhythm':
Mu rhythm usually has a sharp negative peak to each wave [...] and giving it a characteristic wave shape. Because of this it was originally called 'comb' or 'wicket' rhythm (American usage, as in 'wicket fence').
source: Clinical neurophysiology: EEG ... - Google Ksi
They are called 'wicket spikes', because their rounded shape resembles croquet wicket.

Also:
Landscape architectural graphic ... - Google Ksi
So, as you can see, there is something called "wicket fence".

So my theory is: some people call picket fence a wicket fence, because it is somehow similar to cricket wicket. At least in the UK. In the US, on the other hand, a wicket fence may look differently, like a 'wicket rhythm', or like a croquet wicket (see: Evanston Wicket Fence - Border Concepts, Inc. - it is an American company and the word "wicket" has a different meaning).

 

[birdeen's call]

Thanks for the work you've done. The technical link is very convincing. The picture indeed shows a fence that looks as if it were made of croquet wickets which quite assures me that you've got the point.

But there's one thing that I'm still not sure about. The picture from your link shows something very much different from what my original picture showed. I think it could mean there are two different kinds of fences, the wicket fence and the picket fence (there are more of course), the former being made of pickets and the latter - of some wicket-like things. But then, the description of my picture (which I can't find right now) was "wicket fence". Would it be because the upright parts are round at their ends? But I wouldn't say they're similar to croquet wickets... They're more similar to cricket wickets. Alright, that's what you said, but it would be fine to have it sorted out by somebody who actually uses these words...

PS: And I'd like to repost my still unanswered question. What are pickets actually? I can't find any meaning of it related to fences in the dictionaries. Is any longer, pointy wooden thing a picket?

 

[Barb_D]

I have never heard "wicket" fence before in my life, and whether the tops of the wooden slats are pointed or round, it's still a picket fence. The one in the American company is indeed a metal fence that looks like croquet wickets, so it's a clever play on the common term "picket fence," but it's not a phrase in common use either in the US or UK, according to my corpus search.