Etymology

villainy

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Today it means: Evil or wicked character or behaviour. Full definition →

Middle English vileinie ← Anglo-Norman vilenie ← Old French vilanie
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villainy · noun1

  1. Old French · derived fromvilanie
  2. Anglo-Norman · derived fromvilenie
  3. Middle English · inherited fromvileinie
  4. English todayvillainy

From Middle English vileinie, vileynye, from Anglo-Norman vilenie, from Old French vilanie.

villainy · adjective2

From villain + -y.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.