villein

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun (Middle Ages) a person who is bound to the land and owned by the feudal lord

From Anglo-Norman vilein, variant of vilain; from Medieval Latin villanus (“field hand”), from Latin villa (“country home”). Doublet of villain.

'I dare swear that he is but a villein born. — King Arthur's Knights: The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls, Henry Gilbert
445 Then gan the villein him to overcraw, And brought unto him swords, ropes, poison, fire, And all that might him to perdition draw; And bad him choose, what death he would desire: For death was due to him, that had provokt Gods ire. — Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I, Edmund Spenser
Behind them was the Tribe in hierarchical order, from owners of four caves (one for each season), a private reindeer-run, and two salmon-leaps, to feudal and prognathous Villeins, semi-entitled to half a bearskin of winter nights, seven yards from the fire, and adscript serfs, holding the reversion of a scraped marrow-bone under heriot (Aren’t those beautiful words, Best Beloved?). — Just so stories, Rudyard Kipling

serf, helot

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