villain

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William Hupy
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villain

Postby William Hupy » Mon Feb 09, 2015 10:19 am

Interesting but not unsurprising how this evolved from the Latin "villa", meaning country house, to low born rustic to now morally corrupt.
William A. Hupy

William Hupy
Senior Lexiterian
Posts: 611
Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2011 2:14 pm

Re: villain

Postby William Hupy » Mon Feb 09, 2015 12:28 pm

I imagine vile also is related. That reminds me of that line from "History of the World, part One" uttered by King Louis XVI: "the peasants are revolting."
William A. Hupy

Perry Lassiter
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Re: villain

Postby Perry Lassiter » Tue Feb 10, 2015 9:20 pm

OEtymD:
villein (n.) Look up villein at Dictionary.com
early 14c., vileyn, spelling variant of villain in its reference to a feudal class of half-free peasants. It tends to keep the literal, historical sense of the word and let the pejorative meanings go with villain; Century Dictionary writes that "the forms villain, villein, etc., are historically one, and the attempt to differentiate them in meaning is idle," but Fowler finds this "a useful piece of differentiation." Related: Villeinage.

Also fascinating that one dictionary quotes two others.
pl


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