villa
(ˈvɪlə)
[Partly a. L. villa country-house, farm, etc., perhaps a diminutive from the stem of vīcus village, hamlet, country-seat; partly a. It. villa (whence also F., Sp., and Pg. villa) from the same source.]
1. Orig., a country mansion or residence, together with a farm, farm-buildings, or other houses attached, built or occupied by a person of some position and wealth; a country seat or estate; in later and more general use, a residence in the country, or in the neighbourhood of a town, usually of some size and architectural elegance and standing in its own grounds. a. Among the ancient Romans, Greeks, etc.
| 1615 G. Sandys Trav. iv. 274 Passing by Ciceros Villa, euen at this day so called, where yet do remaine the ruines of his Academy. 1644 Stapylton Juvenal i. 111 Who built so many villa's? when wast knowne Our Fathers with seven dishes supt alone? 1697 Walsh Life Virgil ¶3 The beautiful Villa's of the Roman Nobility, equalling the Magnificence of the greatest Kings. 1771 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) IV. 254 Pliny has left us descriptions of two of his villas. As he used his Laurentine villa for his winter retreat [etc.]. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxxvi. (1787) III. 443 The villa was pleasantly seated on the margin of the lake. 1797 S. Lysons Rom. Antiq. Woodchester 16 The remains of a Roman house, or rather, perhaps, of a villa. 1832 G. R. Porter Porcelain & Gl. xiii. 269 The ruins of a villa built by Tiberius in the island of Capri. 1838 Thirlwall Greece V. 97 The dwellings which were thickly scattered in the neighbourhood of the capital..seem to have been chiefly villas of the more opulent Spartans. 1879 Froude Cæsar iv. 32 Their great men had country houses and villas, the surest sign of a settled state of society. |
b. With reference to modern Italy or other Continental countries.
| 1611 Coryat Crudities 139 A certaine Gentleman called Bassano..liued at a villa that he had in the country. 1636 Massinger Gt. Dk. Florence i. i, And how, I pray you, (For we, that never look beyond our villas, Must be inquisitive) are state affairs Carried in court? a 1700 Evelyn Diary 27 Feb. 1644, We went to see Cardinal Richelieu's villa at Ruell. Ibid. 10 Nov. 1644, We went to see Prince Ludovisio's villa... The house is very magnificent, and the extent of the ground is exceeding large. 1737 [S. Berington] G. di Lucca's Mem. (1738) 238 Their Villa's, or Palaces of Pleasure, are scattered all over the Country. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) I. 510 The road from Pistoia to Florence..exhibits no villa's or plantations to the view, and consequently..there's the greater number of them in the neighbourhood of Florence. 1806 J. Dallaway Observ. Eng. Archit. x. 232 The capricious lightness of an Italian villa. 1838 Murray's Handbk. N. Germ. 320/1 On the borders of the Havel..is the little villa of Glienecke, once the residence of the minister Von Hardenberg. 1905 ‘G. Thorne’ Lost Cause iii, The gay villa at Nice by the old citadel of Mont-Albano. |
c. In English use. Now merged in next.
| 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. III. Misc. iii. ii. 184 note, Behold the Disposition and Order of these finer sorts of Apartments, Gardens, Villa's! 1748 Hartley Observ. Man i. iv. §1. 427 The Villas and Cabinets of the Noble, the Rich, and the Curious. 1799 Med. Jrnl. I. 338 The profits of some of whom are so extravagant, as to support them in enormous magnificent town-houses and country villas. 1830 Praed Poems (1865) II. 227 Hurrying madly after marriage To some lord's villa. 1833 Loudon Encycl. Archit. §1677 A villa should always form part of a village, and be placed, if possible, on rather higher ground. 1842 Gwilt Archit. §3000 The villas at Foot's Cray and Mereworth, imitations of Palladio's Villa, Capra,..are the maxima of villas: beyond this the villa becomes a mansion. |
| fig. 1742 Young Nt. Th. ix. 1732 What behold I now? A wilderness of wonders burning round;..Perhaps the villas of descending gods! |
d. Hence, any residence of a superior or handsome type, or of some architectural pretension, in the suburbs of a town or in a residential district; also, any small better-class dwelling-house, usually one which is detached or semi-detached.
The word is frequently employed in the names given to particular houses of this type, as
Windsor Villa.
| 1755 Johnson Connoisseur No. 81 ¶4, I cannot help observing, that persons polite enough to be fond of such exquisite refinements, are partly in the same case with the mechanic at his dusty Villa. 1781 Cowper Retirem. 481 Suburban villas, highway-side retreats, That dread th' encroachment of our growing streets. 1792 A. Young Trav. France (1889) 114 To Havre de Grace,..the hills almost covered with little new built villas. 1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 318 Incongruous edificies called villas. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 349 No long avenues of villas, embowered in lilacs and laburnums, extended from the great centre of wealth. 1853 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour ii. 6 The farm houses are dotted about as thickly as to look like inferior ‘villas’ falling out of rank. 1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal II. ix. 167, I wish you would let me build you a villa at Torquay or Dartmouth. |
† 2. (See
quot.)
Obs.—1| a 1700 Evelyn Diary 6 May 1645, In these [valleys] are faire Parks or Gardens call'd Villas, being onely places of recesse and pleasure, at some distance from the streetes, yet within the walls [of Rome]. |
3. attrib. and
Comb. a. Simple
attrib. (passing into
adj.), as
villa architecture,
villa garden,
villa-gate,
villa style,
villa-work, etc.;
villa-house,
† (
a) a house attached to a villa; (
b) a villa residence;
villa dwelling,
residence,
= villa 1 c, d.
| a 1700 Evelyn Diary 10 Nov. 1644, In the villa-house is a man's body,..petrified. 1813 Scott Let. 13 Mar. in Lockhart, What I shall finally make of this villa-work I don't know. 1828 R. Lugar (title), Villa Architecture. 1833 Loudon Encycl. Archit. §1620 All the essential comforts of a villa dwelling. Ibid. §1624 Of the Choice of a Situation for a Villa Residence. 1844 Disraeli Coningsby iv. iii, A..dwelling-house, built in what is called a villa style, with a variety of gardens, and conservatories. 1855 Browning Old Pictures in Florence i, The aloed arch Of the villa-gate. 1876 ‘Ouida’ Winter City xii. 367 Mme. Mila was organising alfresco dinners in villa gardens. |
b. In instrumental or similative combs., as
villa-dotted,
villa-haunted,
villa-like,
adjs. Also in objective or
obj. gen. combs., as
villa dweller,
villa owner, etc.
| 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVI. 264/1 The houses are for the most part neat and villa-like. 1871 Miss Craik Fair France 154 Flat, tame, and villa-haunted, what we should call Cockneyfied. 1881 M. E. Braddon Asph. III. 148 The smiling waters of Thun, with its villa-dotted shores. a 1894 Stevenson Lay Morals, etc. (1911) 123 It is..from the villa-dweller that we hear complaints of the unworthiness of life. 1898 Engineering Mag. XVI. 35 This sort of villa-owner's selfishness. |
Hence (in nonce-use)
villaette (
vɪləˈɛt),
villaˈrette, a small villa;
villafy (
ˈvɪləfaɪ),
v. trans., (
a) to turn into a villa; (
b) to cover with villas.
| 1792 F. Burney Jrnl. 2 June (1972) I. 184 Mrs. & Miss ord & myself set off for Sudbury, near Harrow, where her very elegant Relation, Mr. Orde, has a *villarette. The House is half old, half new, but well fitted up. 1836 Tait's Mag. III. 563 Sweet nestling cottages and villaettes upon the shrubby braes. 1862 W. H. Russell Diary North & South (1863) I. 274 Pretty villarettes [sic] in charming groves of magnolia, orange-trees, and lime oaks. |
| 1865 C. M. Yonge Clever Woman I. vii. 156 My sister lives..at Little Worthy, the next parish... It has a railroad in it, and the cockneys have come down on it and ‘*villafied’ it. 1884 Harper's Mag. Aug. 338/1 [The château] has..been..restored and villafied. 1887 Oxford Mag. 9 Mar. 129 A railway which would villa-fy the shores of Rydal. |