vile

Forms

vile m or f by sense (plural vili)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vīlis (“cheap, of little worth”), first “low in price” and then, by extension, “of little value” in both the literal and the moral sense.^[2][3][4][1] The word is panromance except in Romanian: French vil, Occitan vil, Catalan vil, Spanish vil and Portuguese vil.^[3][5][6] In the Abruzzi the word means “weak, exhausted”, and Old French formed a verb viler “to insult”.^[5][6]

DELI and Nocentini give the Latin word as of unknown origin, without sure comparisons, and Devoto as without reliable connections.^[2][3][7] De Vaan takes it as a deverbal adjective with passive meaning, Proto-Italic *weslis, from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to buy”), “what can be bought”, of the family of vēnum (“sale”) and Hittite wāš- (“to buy”); the expected *vēlis would have been raised after the labial.^[8][8][1] The OLD gives the same derivation as doubtful.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's earliest dated use is in the Fiore di virtù, at the end of the 13th century, of animals that flee from danger.^[2][10] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date the word to the 13th century and Zingarelli to before 1250;^{[3][11][12][13]} GDLI quotes it from 13th-century lyric poets for “lacking courage”.^{[3][11][12][13]}

Semantic evolution

Dante uses the word 86 times with several shades of “wretched, mean” (1304–1308).^[2][4] The literal “costing and worth little” is in Cavalca (before 1342), “base, despicable” in the 14th-century vernacular Augustine, and “cowardly” of people in Passavanti (1354).^[2] Of persons, it also meant “of humble birth”, as opposed to noble, from Pulci (before 1484), a sense that Boccaccio's a mano di vile uomo already implies.^[2][14]

In modern Italian the sense “cowardly” leads, and the noun un vile, “a coward”, is recorded by Tommaseo–Bellini (1879).^[2][4] The older senses survive in literary and fixed uses: il vil denaro, a vil prezzo (dirt cheap), tenere a vile (to hold in contempt), and the metalli vili or base metals of alchemy.^[12][14]

Latin vilipendere “to despise” occurs once in Plautus and may be a misreading of nihili pendere “to value at nothing”; it spread in Medieval Latin (vilipendens, 864) and gave Italian vilipendere (before 1406) and vilipendio.^[2]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – The Fiore di virtù uses vile of fearful animals.^[2]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses vile for “wretched, mean”.^[2][4]
• Before 1342 – Cavalca uses it for “costing and worth little”.^[2]
• 14th century – The vernacular Augustine uses it for “base, despicable”.^[2]
• 1354 – Passavanti uses it for “cowardly”.^[2]
• Before 1484 – Pulci uses it for “of humble birth”.^[2]
• 1879 – Tommaseo–Bellini records the noun “coward”.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Cowardly, lacking courage; unable to take responsibility for one's own actions: Si è dimostrato vile davanti alle minacce.^[4][11][15]
2. Showing cowardice: un vile ricatto.^[4][15][16]
3. Despicable, base: il vil denaro.^[4][11][12]
4. (literary) Of little value; cheap: a vil prezzo, at a very low price;^[4][12][16] metallo vile, a base metal.^[4][12][16]
5. (literary) Wretched, mean;^[11][12][14] tenere a vile, to hold in contempt.^[11][12][14]
6. (literary) Of humble birth, of low social standing.^[4][11][17]

Noun

1. A coward: Solo un vile abbandona i compagni.^[4][17][15]

Word family

• viltà
• vilmente
• avvilire
• avvilimento
• avvilente
• invilire
• rinvilire
• svilire
• svilimento
• vilezza

Related words

• vilipendere
• vilipendio
• Latin vīlis

Usage notes

The variant vilio is Tuscan, in the sense “cheap”.^[12] Old Italian also had ville.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 471
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
14. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana