Talk:villain

Request for verification
Are these separate senses, or should they be combined? --Hekaheka 21:02, 21 June 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) A vile, wicked person.
 * 2) An extremely depraved person, or one capable or guilty of great crimes.
 * 3) A deliberate scoundrel.


 * They are the same, as far as I can tell. Also, the final sense (feudal rank): isn't that villein:? Equinox ◑ 21:21, 21 June 2009 (UTC)


 * For villain, Chambers gives villein as the (noun) "original" meaning, and adjectival senses of low-born, base and villainous. Pingku 22:05, 21 June 2009 (UTC)
 * A depraved person capable of crimes is not the same as the rest of that (a vile, wicked person, guilty of crimes, a deliberate scoundrel): he may have never done a bad deed in his life. That said, I don't know the "depraved person capable of crimes" sense of this word. Anyone else familiar with it? &#x200b;  —msh210  ℠  22:27, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

Striking. Someone has changed the second and third senses to be subsenses of the first. Obviously the three senses, taken together, are in clearly widespread use; and determining which one(s), if any, to delete or merge, would probably require citations, which no one has provided, or at least more discussion than what we have here. So, I've removed and added  and, in the hopes that one of those tags will accomplish what the  tag did not. —Ruakh TALK 04:18, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

RFV discussion: January 2022
Rfv-sense: A poor peasant farmer. —Svārtava [t•c•u•r] 04:37, 6 January 2022 (UTC)
 * This is already covered by sense 4, "Archaic form of villein." A villein was a kind of serf in feudal Europe. 70.172.194.25 04:40, 6 January 2022 (UTC)
 * I agree, and have merged them accordingly. — Vorziblix (talk · contribs) 17:02, 7 January 2022 (UTC)


 * (Sruck as resolved.) - -sche (discuss) 04:25, 10 January 2022 (UTC)