Crossword clues for villein
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Villain \Vil"lain\, n. [OE. vilein, F. vilain, LL. villanus, from villa a village, L. villa a farm. See Villa.]
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(Feudal Law) One who holds lands by a base, or servile, tenure, or in villenage; a feudal tenant of the lowest class, a bondman or servant. [In this sense written also villan, and villein.]
If any of my ansectors was a tenant, and a servant, and held his lands as a villain to his lord, his posterity also must do so, though accidentally they become noble.
--Jer. Taylor.Note: Villains were of two sorts; villains regardant, that is, annexed to the manor (LL. adscripti gleb[ae]); and villains in gross, that is, annexed to the person of their lord, and transferable from one to another.
--Blackstone. -
A baseborn or clownish person; a boor. [R.]
Pour the blood of the villain in one basin, and the blood of the gentleman in another, what difference shall there be proved?
--Becon. -
A vile, wicked person; a man extremely depraved, and capable or guilty of great crimes; a deliberate scoundrel; a knave; a rascal; a scamp.
Like a villain with a smiling cheek.
--Shak.Calm, thinking villains, whom no faith could fix.
--Pope.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 14c., vileyn, spelling variant of villain in its reference to a feudal class of half-free peasants. It tends to keep the literal, historical sense of the word and let the pejorative meanings go with villain; Century Dictionary writes that "the forms villain, villein, etc., are historically one, and the attempt to differentiate them in meaning is idle," but Fowler finds this "a useful piece of differentiation." Related: Villeinage.
Wiktionary
n. (context historical English) A feudal tenant.
WordNet
Wikipedia
Villein, or villain, was a term used in the feudal era to denote a peasant (tenant farmer) who was legally tied to a lord of the manor – a villein in gross – or in the case of a villein regardant to a manor. Villeins occupied the social space between a free peasant (or "freeman") and a slave. The majority of medieval European peasants were villeins. An alternative term is serf, from the Latin servus, meaning "slave". A villein could not leave the land without the landowner's consent.
The term derives from Late Latin villanus, meaning a man employed at a Roman villa rustica, or large agricultural estate. The system of tied serfdom originates from a decree issued by the late Roman Emperor Diocletian (ruled 284–305) in an attempt to prevent the flight of peasants from the land and the consequent decline in food production. The decree obliged peasants to register in their locality and never leave it; they could leave their villages only to deliver a message or to accompany their lord to war.
Because of the low status, the term became derogatory. In modern French vilain means "ugly" or "naughty" and in Italian, villano means "rude" or "ill-mannered". For the Spanish villano, the RAE preserves the definition of "neighbor or inhabitant of a village or town", but it also accepts the derogatory use, which is very similar to English usage; in modern English villain means a scoundrel, criminal or a lawless member of society.
Usage examples of "villein".
He was no villein to be in awe of her, but a powerful warlord, a man no one would dare treat as they had done.
I may be your hostage, but I am no common villein that you may insult at your leisure.
At the Thursday court Matilda sat with Sigward on the dais and whispered into his ear as each villein came forward.
She made him give the name of every tenant, every villein, every rent, every customary right.
In the later middle ages, the word villein came to have a servile connotation, but in 1066 these men were the most numerous of heads of families in the countryside, and thought of themselves with pride as being their own masters: the word only came into use about that time, from the Latin villanus, and meant no more than villager.
These gifts or their equivalent were reclaimed by the thane when the villein died, but normally awarded again to his heir to renew the bargain.
Perhaps some of these duties were alternatives, but it looks as though the villein needed stalwart sons and daughters to help him, making the holding essentially a family affair.
It was true that in return they had fired stacks and barns, killed the odd villein, stolen horses and cattle, but all the border clans did that.
The four on this side are all workers, three of them in the service of the bailiff of Sir Baldwin Redvers, and the other, he with the sheepskin, is, as I hear, a villein from the midlands who hath run from his master.
The villein took the cruel blow without wince or cry, as one to whom stripes are a birthright and an inheritance.
Alleyne answered, and then as they journeyed on their way he told them the many things that had befallen him, his meeting with the villein, his sight of the king, his coming upon his brother, with all the tale of the black welcome and of the fair damsel.
Sir Richard stared, and his brows snapped together, and he stalked over to her as he might toward a villein who had displeased him.
The audacious boy could not be more than ten and four, was dressed no better than the meanest villein, which was about all Wulfric noticed about him, since he was in the process of dismounting so he could throttle the fellow.
She had just put the Red Knight in the same class as a unschooled freeman or villein, and she knew that he would not like it.
I find him in his own nest and at his own hearth, I can take him and tax him as my villein for the reason that his return brings him to the same condition as he was when he went.