a chiefly French verse form consisting of five tercets (three-line stanzas; see tercet) and a quatrain (four-line stanza) using two rhymes, or a poem in this form. The rhyme scheme is aba aba aba aba aba abaa; the first and third lines are repeated alternately in the following tercets and together in the quatrain
[French villanello from Italian villanella, from villano peasant, from medieval Latin villanus: see villain]