villan.
/ˈvɪlə/, U.S. /ˈvɪlə/ 1. Originally: 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.figurative.1745 E. Young Consolation 86 What behold I now? A Wilderness of Wonders burning round;..Perhaps the Villas of descending Gods!
a. Among the ancient Romans, Greeks, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [noun] > villa or country house
grange1552
country housec1555
lust-house1590
aldeia1609
villa1615
bastide?1656
vill1684
family seat1712
quinta1754
1615 G. Sandys Relation of Journey iv. 274 Passing by Ciceros Villa, euen at this day so called, where yet do remaine the ruines of his Academy.
1644 R. Stapleton tr. Juvenal First Six Satyrs i. 111 Who built so many villa's? when wast knowne Our Fathers with seven dishes supt alone?
1697 K. Chetwood Life Virgil in J. Dryden tr. Virgil Wks. (1721) I. 32 The beautiful Villa's of the Roman Nobility, equalling the Magnificence of the greatest Kings.
1780 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Painting (ed. 2) IV. vii. 120 Pliny has left us descriptions of two of his villas. As he used his Laurentine villa for his winter-retreat [etc.].
1781 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall (1787) III. xxxvi. 443 The villa was pleasantly seated on the margin of the lake.
1797 S. Lysons Acct. Rom. Antiq. Woodchester 16 The remains of a Roman house, or rather, perhaps, of a villa.
1832 G. R. Porter Treat. Manuf. Porcelain & Glass xiii. 269 The ruins of a villa built by Tiberius in the island of Capri.
1838 C. Thirlwall Hist. 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 J. A. 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.
ΚΠ
1611 T. Coryate Crudities sig. M7 A certaine Gentleman called Bassano,..liued at a villa that he had in the country.
1636 P. Massinger Great Duke of Florence i. i. sig. B2 And how I pray you (For we that never look beyond our villa's Must be inquisitive) are State affaires Carried in Court?
c1660 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1644 (1955) II. 108 We went to the Cardinal Richlieus Villa at Ruell.
c1660 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1644 (1955) II. 234 We went to see Prince Ludovisio's Villa... The house is very magnificent, and the extent of the Ground exceeding Large.
1737 S. Berington Mem. G. di Lucca 255 Their Villa's or Palaces of Pleasure are scatterd all over the Country.
1756 tr. J. G. Keyssler Trav. I. 417 The road from Pistoia to Florence..but 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.
1836 J. Murray Hand-bk. for Travellers on Continent 293/1 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 1d.
ΚΠ
1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks III. Misc. iii. ii. 184 (note) Behold the Disposition and Order of these finer sorts of Apartments, Gardens, Villa's!
1749 D. Hartley Observ. Man i. iv. §1. 427 The Villas and Cabinets of the Noble, the Rich, and the Curious.
1799 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 1 338 The profits of some of whom are so extravagant, as to support them in enormous magnificent town-houses and country villas.
1830 W. M. Praed Poems (1865) II. 227 Hurrying madly after marriage To some lord's villa.
1833 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Cottage Archit. §1677 A villa should always form part of a village, and be placed, if possible, on rather higher ground.
1842 J. Gwilt Encycl. Archit. iii. iii. 814 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.
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.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [noun] > house of specific shape or style
hall-house1467
longhouse1643
bungalow1676
single housea1684
tower-house1687
villa1755
box1773
cottage orné1774
villarette1792
mews1805
cottage1808
terrace house1817
casita1822
villa dwelling1833
villa residence1833
box-house1846
six-roomer1853
terrace1854
tembe1860
moat house1871
parlour house1871
row house1871
salt-box1876
trullo1898
townhouse1900
colonial1903
semi1912
Cape Cod1916
bungaloid1927
semi-detached1928
ranchette1938
solar house1946
rambler1947
rancher1950
ranch1951
tunnel-back1957
sidesplit1958
two-up-and-two-downer1958
two-up two-down1958
semi-det1960
A-frame1963
townhouse1965
tri-level1965
link house1968
split1970
dormer bungalow1977
1755 Connoisseur (1756) No. 81. 483 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 W. Cowper Retirem. 481 Suburban villas, highway-side retreats, That dread th' encroachment of our growing streets.
1788 A. Young Jrnl. 15 Aug. in Trav. France (1792) i. 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 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. iii. 349 No long avenues of villas, embowered in lilacs and laburnums, extended from the great centre of wealth.
1852 R. S. Surtees Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour i. 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.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > gardening > garden > [noun] > public gardens
garden1612
spring garden1612
botanic garden1662
villaa1684
botanical garden1704
a1684 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1645 (1955) II. 401 In these [valleys] faire parks or Gardens calld Villas, being onely places of Recesse & pleasure, at some distance from the Streetes, yet all within..the Walls [of Rome].
Compounds
C1.
a. Simple attributive (passing into adjective), as villa architecture, villa garden, villa-gate, villa style, villa-work, etc.
ΚΠ
1813 W. Scott Let. 13 Mar. (1932) III. 235 What I shall finally make of this villa-work I dont know.
1828 R. Lugar (title) Villa Architecture.
1844 B. Disraeli Coningsby II. iv. iii. 18 A..dwelling-house, built in what is called a villa-style, with a variety of gardens, and conservatories.
1855 R. Browning Old Pictures in Florence i The aloed arch Of the villa-gate.
1876 ‘Ouida’ In Winter City xii. 367 Mme. Mila was organising alfresco dinners in villa gardens.
b.
villa dwelling n.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [noun] > house of specific shape or style
hall-house1467
longhouse1643
bungalow1676
single housea1684
tower-house1687
villa1755
box1773
cottage orné1774
villarette1792
mews1805
cottage1808
terrace house1817
casita1822
villa dwelling1833
villa residence1833
box-house1846
six-roomer1853
terrace1854
tembe1860
moat house1871
parlour house1871
row house1871
salt-box1876
trullo1898
townhouse1900
colonial1903
semi1912
Cape Cod1916
bungaloid1927
semi-detached1928
ranchette1938
solar house1946
rambler1947
rancher1950
ranch1951
tunnel-back1957
sidesplit1958
two-up-and-two-downer1958
two-up two-down1958
semi-det1960
A-frame1963
townhouse1965
tri-level1965
link house1968
split1970
dormer bungalow1977
1833 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Cottage Archit. §1620 All the essential comforts of a villa dwelling.
villa-house n. †(a) a house attached to a villa; (b) a villa residence.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [noun] > villa or country house > house attached to a villa
villa-housec1660
c1660 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1644 (1955) II. 235 There is likewise in the Villa-house a mans body..Petrified.
villa residence = 1c, 1d.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [noun] > house of specific shape or style
hall-house1467
longhouse1643
bungalow1676
single housea1684
tower-house1687
villa1755
box1773
cottage orné1774
villarette1792
mews1805
cottage1808
terrace house1817
casita1822
villa dwelling1833
villa residence1833
box-house1846
six-roomer1853
terrace1854
tembe1860
moat house1871
parlour house1871
row house1871
salt-box1876
trullo1898
townhouse1900
colonial1903
semi1912
Cape Cod1916
bungaloid1927
semi-detached1928
ranchette1938
solar house1946
rambler1947
rancher1950
ranch1951
tunnel-back1957
sidesplit1958
two-up-and-two-downer1958
two-up two-down1958
semi-det1960
A-frame1963
townhouse1965
tri-level1965
link house1968
split1970
dormer bungalow1977
1833 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Cottage Archit. §1624 Of the Choice of a Situation for a Villa Residence.
C2. Instrumental or similative, as villa-dotted, villa-haunted, villa-like, adjs.
ΚΠ
1843 Penny Cycl. XXVI. 264/1 The houses are for the most part neat and villa-like.
1871 D. M. Mulock Fair France 154 Flat, tame, and villa-haunted, what we should call Cockneyfied.
1881 M. E. Braddon Asphodel III. 148 The smiling waters of Thun, with its villa-dotted shores.
C3. Objective or objective genitive, as villa dweller, villa owner, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > possessor > [noun] > owner > landowner > owner of an estate and dwelling
hacendado1840
villa ownera1894
patron1895
a1894 R. L. Stevenson Lay Morals (1911) 123 It is..from the villa-dweller that we hear complaints of the unworthiness of life.
1898 Engin. Mag. 16 35 This sort of villa-owner's selfishness.
Derivatives
villaˈrette n. (also villaette /vɪləˈɛt/) a small villa.
/vɪləˈɛt/) a small villa.ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [noun] > house of specific shape or style
hall-house1467
longhouse1643
bungalow1676
single housea1684
tower-house1687
villa1755
box1773
cottage orné1774
villarette1792
mews1805
cottage1808
terrace house1817
casita1822
villa dwelling1833
villa residence1833
box-house1846
six-roomer1853
terrace1854
tembe1860
moat house1871
parlour house1871
row house1871
salt-box1876
trullo1898
townhouse1900
colonial1903
semi1912
Cape Cod1916
bungaloid1927
semi-detached1928
ranchette1938
solar house1946
rambler1947
rancher1950
ranch1951
tunnel-back1957
sidesplit1958
two-up-and-two-downer1958
two-up two-down1958
semi-det1960
A-frame1963
townhouse1965
tri-level1965
link house1968
split1970
dormer bungalow1977
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [noun] > villa or country house > small
box1696
country box1722
villakin1730
cottage orné1774
villarette1792
ranch1807
bower1810
ranch house1859
villino?1863
dacha1896
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 Edinb. Mag. New Ser. 3 563 Sweet nestling cottages and villaettes upon the shrubby braes.
1862 W. H. Russell My Diary North & South (1863) I. 274 Pretty villarettes [sic] in charming groves of magnolia, orange-trees, and lime oaks.
villafy v. /ˈvɪləfaɪ/ (transitive) (a) to turn into a villa; (b) to cover with villas.
/ˈvɪləfaɪ/ (transitive) (a) to turn into a villa; (b) to cover with villas.ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [verb (transitive)] > cover with villas
villafy1865
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > a house > types of house > [verb (transitive)] > turn into a villa
villafy1865
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 Oxf. Mag. 9 Mar. 129 A railway which would villa-fy the shores of Rydal.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1917; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
<
n.1611