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villainy

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,081 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: villainies

Villainy is wicked and criminal behaviour. Acts of villainy, sheer villainy, plots and villainy.

It is theatrical, and the word is now used more of fiction than of court reports. Like villain and villainous it comes from a word for a peasant, which is a long journey from farm labour to wickedness.

Definitions of villainy

  1. 1nounvillainyWicked and criminal behaviour.C1

    “The pirate captain was famous for his villainy on the high seas.”

villainy is a wickedness.

Where it comes from

Old French vilanie comes from vilain, a peasant, from Latin villa, a farm.

  1. Old French

    vilanie

  2. Anglo-Norman

    vilenie

  3. Middle English

    vileinie

  4. English, today

    villainy

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

villainy in the wild

  • Norman Treigle was an American operatic bass-baritone, who was acclaimed for his great abilities as a singing-actor, and specialized in roles that evoked villainy and terror.

    Norman Treigle

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.