villain
/ˈvɪl.ən/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.88 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A character who has the role of being bad, especially antagonizing the hero; an antagonist who is also evil or malevolent.
noun
Any opponent player, especially a hypothetical player for example and didactic purposes. Compare: hero (“the current player”).
Example Sentences
- "Oh moſt pernicious woman! / Oh Villaine, Villaine, ſmiling damned Villaine!"
- "Thou ly’ſt thou ſhagge-ear’d Villaine."
- "Note the preſumption of this Scythian ſlaue: I tel thee villaine, thoſe that lead my horſe Haue to their names tytles of dignitie, And dar’ſt thou bluntly cal me Baiazeth?"
- "Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels."
- "As The Dark Knight Rises brings a close to Christopher Nolan’s staggeringly ambitious Batman trilogy, it’s worth remembering that director chose The Scarecrow as his first villain—not necessarily the most popular among the comic’s gallery of rogues, but the one who set the tone for entire series. […] But in the underground tunnel system, a powerful new villain emerges in Bane (Tom Hardy), a bulked-out mercenary in a gas mask who may look and speak like a professional wrestler, but who carries out a thoroughly considered plan to isolate Gotham and impose his own sadistic vision of government upon it."
- "In some ways, it’s a relief to see tech bros, especially AI entrepreneurs, reach full, unambiguous movie-villain status."
Etymology
Probably from Middle English vilein, from Old French vilein (modern French vilain), in turn from Late Latin vīllānus, meaning serf or peasant, someone who is bound to the soil of a Latin vīlla, which is to say, worked on the equivalent of a plantation in late Antiquity, in Italy or Gaul. Doublet of villein. Compare typologically pagan (see more).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *weyḱ-, vilein, vīllānus, vīlla