vilão

Forms

vilão m (plural vilões or (rare) vilães or (rare) vilãos, feminine vilã or (rare) viloa, feminine plural vilãs or (rare) viloas)^[1] The oldest texts write vilão, vilãos and uilláás in the 13th century, and the Crónica Troiana has vilaão.^[2][3] Barbosa (1611) heads the word Villão, with the feminine Villaã.^[4] The plural is vilãos, vilões or vilães, and the feminine vilã or viloa.^[5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin vīllānus (“farm worker”), written Old Galician-Portuguese vilão in the oldest texts.^[2][1] Houaiss, Cunha and Aurélio give the Latin word as Vulgar Latin, with the sense “inhabitant of a country house”.^[2][7][5] Medieval Latin used it for a dependant with a holding of land, for a villager and for a boor.^[8] It is formed from vīlla (“country house, farm”) with the adjective suffix -ānus.^[1][9] By surface analysis the Portuguese word is vila with the suffix -ão.^[1]

The same Latin word is Galician vilán, Spanish villano, Catalan vilà, Occitan vilan, French vilain and Italian villano.^[10][11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the 13th century.^[2][7] In a cantiga d'escarnho Afonso X has muito coteife vilão, and Pero da Ponte sets the fidalgo against the vilão, the noble against the commoner.^[12] The Cantigas de Santa Maria use it for a peasant (a ssa moller diss'o vilão: Irey cras a mercado, “the peasant said to his wife: I'll go to market tomorrow”) and already as an insult (vilão, falsso, rudo).^[12]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word named the man who lived on a villa, a country estate; in Portuguese it came to mean “low, base, ignoble”.^[13][2] The cantigas show both sides at once: the rustic and the man of low birth, and the word thrown at an enemy.^[12][14] Cunha dates the sense “scoundrel” to the 13th century.^[7] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 renders it with Latin rusticus.^[15] The cavaleiro vilão was a knight who was not of noble lineage.^[16][6]

As a historical term it names the medieval peasant who worked a lord's land but was free to leave it, as opposed to the serf.^[2][5] Houaiss and Aulete also record the modern sense “villain of a play, novel or film”, and Aulete adds the person or thing blamed for a serious problem.^[2][16] In Brazil the word names several folk dances, among them the ribbon dance also called pau-de-fita.^[2][17] In the Azores a vilão is a masked dancer of the mouriscas who makes fun of the local people, and in Trás-os-Montes a kind of sausage.^[6][1][18] Macanese has vilám.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – a cantiga d'escarnho of Afonso X has coteife vilão, and the Cantigas de Santa Maria use vilão for a peasant.^[12]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary glosses vilão with Latin rusticus.^[15]
• 1611 – Barbosa heads the word Villão and gives the feminine Villaã.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A villein: a medieval peasant who worked for a lord but could leave the land, unlike the servo.^[2][5][1]
2. (dated) An inhabitant of a vila, a small town.^[2][6][1]
3. A commoner, a man not of noble birth; a rustic, a peasant (camponês).^[2][5]
4. A base, contemptible man; a scoundrel.^[2][7][5]
5. The villain of a story: the character who stands for evil against the hero, in plays, novels and films.^[2][16][1]
6. Something or someone blamed for a problem.^[16][1]
7. (Brazil) Any of several folk dances: one danced with sticks struck together; the ribbon dance pau-de-fita; round dances in which one dancer is mocked by the rest.^[2][17]
8. (Azores) A masked dancer of the mouriscas who mocks the local people.^[6][1]
9. (Trás-os-Montes) A local kind of sausage.^[6][18]

Adjective

1. (dated) Living in a town; of a town.^[2][5][1]
2. Not noble; plebeian.^[2][6]
3. Base, contemptible, vile.^[2][5]
4. Mean with money, miserly (avarento).^[2][18]
5. (figurative) Rustic, crude; coarse (grosseiro), discourteous.^[2][5]
6. (figurative) Ugly, misshapen.^[2]

Word family

• cavaleiro-vilão
• vilanaço
• vilanaz
• vilanagem
• vilanesco
• vilania
• vilãmente

Related words

• vil
• vila
• Latin villa
• Galician vilán
• Spanish villano

Usage notes

The proverb se queres conhecer o vilão, mete-lhe a vara na mão “if you want to know the villain, put the staff in his hand” says that a base man shows what he is once he is given authority.^[18][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vilão
3. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. vilaão
4. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. villão
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vilão
6. ^ a b c d e f g Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. vilão
7. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. vilão
8. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. villanus
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. vilain
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9331
11. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. villanus
12. ^ a b c d Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. vilão
13. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vilão
14. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. vilão
15. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vilão
16. ^ a b c d Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. vilão
17. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. vilão
18. ^ a b c d Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9507
19. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. vilão