Meaning

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

originBorrowed from Old Norse víkingr (“Viking”). Already in Old English as wīċing and Old Frisian wītsing, but assumed extinct in Middle English and borrowed anew in the 19th century; any survivals in dialect through the Middle Ages are unknown. Old Norse víkingr itself is from Old Norse vík (“inlet, cove, fjord”) + -ingr (“one belonging to, one who frequents”) (the -r is the nominative desinence).…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0