Villain

A Dictionary of Epithets and Terms of Address

This was Originally the same word as ‘villein’, referring to a serf who was attached to a villa, or estate. Such serfs were low-born and of rather primitive habits, and some were naturally disposed to base or criminal behaviour. The latter became the ‘villains’, or scoundrels and criminals of today.

As a term of address to such persons, ‘villain’ has been in continuous use since the fourteenth century. From the sixteenth century it has also been used more playfully. In such cases it is often softened by the use of other words, so that the vocative becomes ‘you little villain’, ‘you young villain’.

Shakespeare has many examples of ‘Villain’ used as a serious accusation, but there is also, in The Winter’s Tale, ‘Sweet villain! Most dear’st! my collop!’ used by Leontes to his page. ‘Sweet villain’ also occurs in Prospero’s letter to Lorenzo in Jonson’s Every Man in his Humour.

In Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding, Mrs Partridge calls her husband ‘Villain’. In The Pickwick Papers Winkle is ‘villain’ according to Mr Pott, editor of the Eatanswill Gazette. Other Dickensian characters no doubt make use of the term, but it is now more rarely used as a vocative.

In police circles in Britain it is used to refer to criminals in the third person, but policemen do not usually say: ‘You’re under arrest, you villain’.

The playful use of the term of address continues, influenced by the theatrical use of ‘villain’ to describe the anti-hero of a play. Serious use of the term may also be possible. D.H. Lawrence, in Aaron’s Rod, has: ‘“You villain,” she said, and her face was transfigured with passion as he had never seen it before, horrible. “You villain!” she said thickly’. This is a wife addressing the husband who has left her, but has briefly returned.