vila

Forms

vila f (plural vilas)^[1] Old texts write vila and uilla, and Houaiss records vilha in the 14th century and ujla and vylas in the 15th.^[2] Vieira (1871–1874) refers vila to the spelling villa, which García de Diego also gives for Portuguese.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vīlla (“country house, farm”), written Old Galician-Portuguese vila in the oldest texts.^[2][5][1] Nascentes notes that in late Latin the word came to mean a group of rural holdings, larger than a hamlet.^[6] The sense “country house, villa” is the same Latin word taken again through Italian villa.^[2][6][1]

The same Latin word is Galician vila, Spanish villa, Catalan vila and French ville, and the Italian word above.^[7][1]

The Latin noun is probably from Proto-Italic *weikslā, from the root of vīcus (“village, row of houses”), Proto-Indo-European *weyḱ- (“settlement”).^[8][1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Latin charters of the north-west already use uilla for a rural estate: one of 803 speaks of a uilla inherited from the writer's father.^[10] In Galician-Portuguese texts the word appears in the 13th century; in the Cantigas de Santa Maria it means a town, as in cantiga 28, where an army vẽo a vila cercar “came to besiege the town”.^[10][2]

Semantic evolution

The cantigas d'amigo use it for a country house or farm, the Latin sense.^[10] The 14th-century Crónica Geral uses it for any settlement and makes no distinction between vila and cidade “city”.^[10] Cardoso's dictionary (1569) glosses it with Latin municipium.^[11] In Portugal it became the name of a settlement ranked above a village (aldeia) and below a city.^[2][12]

The sense “villa, elegant country house” came through Italian.^[13][2] In Brazil vila is also a group of small houses round a cul-de-sac or courtyard with one way out to the street, and in Rio Grande do Sul a settlement not recognised as a city or a poor quarter.^[2][14][1]

Timeline

• 803 – a Latin charter speaks of a uilla inherited from the writer's father.^[10]
• 13th century – vila “town” in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[10][2][5]
• 14th century – the Crónica Geral uses vila and cidade interchangeably.^[10]
• c. 1430 – it appears in the Horto do Esposo.^[15]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with municipium.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Portugal) A town, a settlement ranked above a village and below a city.^[2][12][1]
2. The inhabitants of such a town: A vila inteira foi à festa.^[2][16]
3. A villa, a country house near an Italian city; any elegant house with a garden.^[2][17][1]
4. (Brazil) A group of houses round a cul-de-sac or small courtyard with a single exit to the street.^[2][17][1]
5. Any group of houses built together: vila operária.^[2][17]
6. (Rio Grande do Sul, informal) A slum.^[1]

Word family

• vilazinha

Related words

• vilão
• vilar
• vilarejo
• Latin vīlla
• Italian villa

Usage notes

The phrase fora de vila e termo means “very far away”.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. vila
3. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 5, 947
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. villa
5. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. vila
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. vila
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9330
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. villa
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. villa
10. ^ a b c d e f g 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. vila
11. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. vila
12. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. vila
13. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 525
14. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. s.v. vila
15. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. vila
16. ^ 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. vila
17. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. vila