noun
Meaning 1
A feudal tenant, a serf.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: historical
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
villein
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/ˈvɪlən/
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/ˈvɪleɪn/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -ɪlən
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homophone: villain
noun
Meaning 2
(Middle Ages) a person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: serf, helot
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: thrall
Narrower terms: cotter, cottier
History
Etymology
From Anglo-Norman vilein, variant of vilain; from Medieval Latin villanus (“field hand”), from Latin villa (“country home”). Doublet of villain.
Across languages
Translations
15 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: вилан (vilan) — feudal tenant
- Czech: nevolník — feudal tenant
- Galician: vilán — feudal tenant
- German: Leibeigener — feudal tenant
- Hungarian: jobbágy — feudal tenant
- Irish: viléineach — feudal tenant
- Irish: seirfeach — feudal tenant
- Italian: servo della gleba — feudal tenant
- Polish: chłop pańszczyźniany — feudal tenant
- Polish: chłopka pańszczyźniana — feudal tenant
- Russian: вилла́н (villán) — feudal tenant
- Russian: холо́п (xolóp) — feudal tenant
- Swedish: livegen — feudal tenant
- Welsh: aillt — feudal tenant
- Welsh: taeog — feudal tenant