Many of the words in our language have origins much different than what you might believe! It's always interesting to discover where they came from!
Villain
What it means now: “A person guilty or capable of a crime or wickedness.”
What it used to mean: A farm worker
Everybody, especially Batman, is familiar with villains—thanks to over half a century of movies, we all know that the villain is the bad guy. Back in the 14th century though, villains were the backbone of agriculture. That is to say, they were the guys who worked on farms. The word villain is actually an old French word that pulls its roots from the word “villa,” Latin for country house.
Over time, the meaning of the word gradually changed: Farm workers were poor, practically peasants. Peasants, being poor, are untrustworthy. Untrustworthy people commit crimes. And eventually we ended up with the modern day definition of villain, which is a rich person who gets killed by James Bond.
Pretty strange when you find out where these words came from, isn't it?
Coffee outside this morning. How about some apple pie to go with it?
