villa

Forms

villa f (plural villas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian villa (“farm, country house”), which is from Latin villa (“country house, farm”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Italian word has the sense “luxurious country house with a park” from the early 14th century.^[2] The Latin word was inherited as ville, of which the borrowing is a doublet.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Bibliothèque britannique (1743) uses it for a rich Italian country house with a park, at Rome.^[2][8][3]

Semantic evolution

Since the Romantic period (Hugo, 1821) it has meant a country house with a garden, implying some luxury; the idea of luxury faded in the late 19th and 20th centuries, when villa came to mean a fairly large detached house in its own garden, larger than a pavillon.^[2][3][9] After Latin, historians have used it since Chateaubriand (1810) for a rural estate in ancient Italy and in Merovingian and Carolingian Gaul.^[2][3] By extension (1914) it names a private lane lined with houses, and in the French of Africa it can mean any house built of solid materials.^[3][9]

Timeline

• 1743 – First record, of a country house in Rome.^[2]
• 1810 – Chateaubriand uses it for a Roman rural estate.^[2]
• 1821 – Hugo uses it for a country house with a garden.^[2][3]
• 1914 – A lane lined with detached houses.^[3][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rich country house in Italy, or a building that once was one: la villa Médicis.^[9][2]
2. A detached house with a garden, often in a resort or suburb.^[9][10][2]
3. A private lane or cul-de-sac lined with detached houses.^[9][3]
4. (history) A rural estate of ancient Italy or of Merovingian and Carolingian Gaul.^[9][2]
5. (Africa) Any house built of solid materials.^[3]

Related words

• ville
• villégiature
• Italian villa

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 451b
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)