Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One of a seafaring Scandinavian people who raided the coasts of northern and western Europe from the eighth through the tenth century.
  • noun A Scandinavian.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A rover or sea-robber belonging to one of the prodatory bands of Northmen who infosted the European seas during the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries and made various settlements in the British Islands, France, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One belonging to the pirate crews from among the Northmen, who plundered the coasts of Europe in the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun by extension A stock character common in the fantasy genera, a barbarian, generally equipped with an ax and a helmet adorned with horns.
  • noun American football A player on the Minnesota Vikings NFL team.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of the Scandinavian people who raided the coasts of Europe from the 8th to the 11th centuries

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Old Norse vīkingr, perhaps from vīk, creek, inlet.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

A loan from Old Norse víkingr. Already in Old English as wīcing and Old Frisian witsing, wising, but extinct in Middle English and loaned anew in the 19th century.

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