villa

\ \ [17] Latin vīlla denoted a ‘country house’. It was a condensation of an earlier *wīcslā, which in turn was derived from *wīcus ‘group of houses, camp, village, etc’ (source of the -wick, -wich of English place-names). And *wīcus was descended from Indo-European *weik-, *wik-, *woik-, which also produced Greek oíkos ‘house’ (source of English economy). To the same family belong village [14], a derivative of Old French ville in its extended sense ‘town’, and villain [14], which came via Old French vilain from Vulgar Latin *vīllānus, literally ‘dweller in a villa’, and originally denoted ‘feudal serf’ (now usually spelled villein, to distinguish it from the metaphorical ‘scoundrel, criminal’).

\ \ Cf.⇒ ECONOMY, VILLAGE, VILLAIN