different between villain vs varlet

English

Alternative forms

• villan (archaic)

Etymology

Probably from Middle English villein, from Old French vilein (modern French vilain), in turn from Late Latin villanus, meaning serf or peasant, someone who is bound to the soil of a Latin villa, which is to say, worked on the equivalent of a plantation in late Antiquity, in Italy or Gaul.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?v?l?n/
• Rhymes: -?l?n

Noun

villain (plural villains, feminine villainess)

1. (Can we clean up⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:) A vile, wicked person.
   1. An extremely depraved person, or one capable or guilty of great crimes.
   2. A deliberate scoundrel.
2. In fiction, a character who has the role of being bad, especially antagonizing the hero.

   Synonyms: antagonist; see also Thesaurus:villain

   • July 18 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Rises[2]

     As The Dark Knight Rises brings a close to Christopher Nolan’s staggeringly ambitious Batman trilogy, it’s worth remembering that director chose The Scarecrow as his first villain—not necessarily the most popular among the comic’s gallery of rogues, but the one who set the tone for entire series.

3. (poker) Any opponent player, especially a hypothetical player for example and didactic purposes. Compare: hero (“the current player”).

4. Archaic form of villein.

Synonyms

• knave
• rascal
• scamp
• cad
• See also Thesaurus:villain
• See also Thesaurus:troublemaker

Derived terms

• anti-villain
• supervillain
• villainess
• villainise / villainize

Related terms

• villein

Translations

Verb

villain (third-person singular simple present villains, present participle villaining, simple past and past participle villained)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To debase; to degrade.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir T. More to this entry?)

Further reading

• villain on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Villani, villian

Finnish

Alternative forms

• villojen

Noun

villain

1. Genitive plural form of villa.

Anagrams

• villani

Old French

Noun

villain m (oblique plural villainz, nominative singular villainz, nominative plural villain)

1. Alternative form of vilain

English

Etymology

From Old French varlet. Compare valet.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?v??l?t/

Noun

varlet (plural varlets)

1. (obsolete) A servant or attendant.
   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 2, ch. 8, The Electon

     The Winchester Manorhouse has fled bodily, like a Dream of the old Night […] . House and people, royal and episcopal, lords and varlets, where are they?

2. (historical) Specifically, a youth acting as a knight's attendant at the beginning of his training for knighthood.
3. (archaic) A rogue or scoundrel.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 410:

     My lady to be called a nasty Scotch wh–re by such a varlet!—To be sure I wish I had knocked his brains out with the punchbowl.

   • 1886, Henry James, The Bostonians.

     He was false, cunning, vulgar, ignoble; the cheapest kind of human product […] The white, puffy mother, with the high forehead, in the corner there, looked more like a lady; but if she were one, it was all the more shame to her to have mated with such a varlet, Ransom said to himself, making use, as he did generally, of terms of opprobrium extracted from the older English literature.

4. (obsolete, card games) The jack.

Translations

Anagrams

• retval, travel

Old French

Noun

varlet m (oblique plural varlez or varletz, nominative singular varlez or varletz, nominative plural varlet)

1. Alternative form of vaslet