ville

See also: -ville and Ville

English

Etymology

From French ville. Doublet of vill and villa.

Noun

ville (plural villes)

1. (US, military, historical) A Vietnamese village.
   • 1977, Michael Herr, “Breathing In”, in Dispatches, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 9:

     Once we fanned over a little ville that had just been airstruck and the words of a song by Wingy Manone that I’d heard when I was a few years old snapped into my head, “Stop the War, These Cats Is^[sic] Killing Themselves.”

   • 1989, Ernest Spencer, Welcome to Vietnam, Macho Man: Reflections of a Khe Sanh Vet, page 247:

     The fighting holes and trenches scattered in and around each ville indicate battle after battle - some only planned, others fought. We move toward a tree-lined ville.

   • 1990, Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried:

     On Halloween, this real hot spooky night, the dude paints up his body all different colors and puts on this weird mask and hikes over to a ville and goes trick-or-treating almost stark naked, just boots and balls and an M-16.

2. (rare) A town or village.
   • 1702 May 1 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Marwood, “Thomas Marwood’s Diary”, in J[ohn] H[ungerford] Pollen, editor, Miscellanea (Publications of the Catholic Record Society; 7), volume VI ([Henry] Bedingfeld Papers, &c.), London: […] [F]or the Society by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co., Edinburgh, published 1909, →OCLC, page 124:

     Ab^t 12, We left S^t Malo & came to Hedé that night 9 Leagues (bayting onely at S^t Pierre a pretty Ville) where we were well lodged & found M^r Macartie (Irlandois) the Curé.

   • 1837 September 11, Lucien Cyrus Boynton, edited by Solon J[ustus] Buck, “Selections from the Journal of Lucien C. Boynton, 1835–1853”, in Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society […], volume 43 (New Series), part 2 (18 October 1933), Worcester, Mass.: […] [T]he Society, published 1934, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 336:

     Found my classmate Means at Amherst [Mass.]. . . . Amherst is a very pleasant little ville, but still and inactive. There is some very good land around it. There is no academic school in the place.

   • [1891], F[rancis] W[ylde] Carew (indicated as editor) [pseudonym; Arthur E. G. Way], “Some Passages from the Life of Mr. James Wood”, in No. 747. Being the Autobiography of a Gipsy., Bristol: J[ames] W[illiams] Arrowsmith, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Limited, →OCLC, page 416:

     We made a long round back to vile,**^[sic] and the night bein’ cold and windy I pulled the blyhunker†† hup under a wall and lit the darkey to sample the swag before goin’ any further—which I allus make a p’int o’ doin’.

     ** “Town.” †† “Horse.”

   • 1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, →OCLC; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, →OCLC, part I, page 130:

     [T]he gleam of the glow of the shine of the sun through the dearth of the dirth on the blush of the brick of the viled ville of Bamehulme has dust turned to brown; […]

   • 1980, Deemer Lee, “It’s All Progress, One Might Suppos”, in Esther’s Town, Ames, Ia.: Iowa State University Press, →ISBN, page 244:

     When I’m asked by a stranger to spell the odd-sounding name of the town in which I say I live, I sometimes hear a snicker, and I get a questioning look. “Yes, Estherville!” I repeat. Why not? “Estherville”—the only one in the world. After all, if Robert Ridley had married someone other than Esther, this could have been Phoebeville, Lenaville, Kittyville, or Daisyville. Esther is a pretty name for a pretty ville, nestled along a meandering river under bluffs wooded by native oak, walnut, maples, and other dense timber.

Related terms

• -ville

Bourguignon

Etymology

From Latin villa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vij/

Noun

ville f (plural villes)

1. city
2. town

Synonyms

• citai

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse vilja, from Proto-Germanic *wiljaną, cognate with English will, German wollen. The Germanic verbs goes back to Proto-Indo-European *welh₁-, which is also the source of Latin volō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vilə/, [ˈʋilə], [ˈʋelə]

Verb

ville (present tense vil, past tense ville, past participle villet)

1. (transitive) to want to, be willing to
2. (auxiliary, in the present tense) shall, will (with the infinitive, expresses future tense)
3. (auxiliary, in the past tense) should, would (with the infinitive, expresses conditional mood)

Conjugation

Conjugation of ville

active passive present vil villes past ville — infinitive ville villes imperative vil — participle present villende past villet (auxiliary verb have) gerund villen

Derived terms

• det vil sige
• hverken ville eje eller have
• hvis du endelig vil vide det
• ikke ville høre tale om
• om du vil
• verden vil bedrages
• vil du tænke dig
• ville til at
• ville vide af
• ville vide at

References

• “ville” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “ville,4” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

Estonian

Noun

ville

1. illative singular of vile

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French ville, from Old French ville, vile, inherited from Latin vīlla (“country house”). Doublet of villa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vil/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /vɪl/
• Rhymes: -il

• Audio:

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• Audio (France (Paris)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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Noun

ville f (plural villes)

1. town, city

   Synonym: cité

Derived terms

• avoir ville gagnée
• centre-ville
• clés de la ville
• hôtel de ville
• village
• ville fantôme
• ville morte
• ville nouvelle
• ville verte
• ville-dortoir
• ville-satellite

Further reading

• “ville”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Noun

ville f pl

1. plural of villa

Anagrams

• velli

Latin

Noun

ville

1. vocative singular of villus

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French ville, vile.

Noun

ville f (plural villes)

1. city or town

Descendants

• French: ville

Norman

Etymology

From Old French ville, from Latin vīlla (“country house”).

Noun

ville f (plural villes)

1. town
   • 1903, Edgar MacCulloch, “Proverbs, Weather Sayings, etc.”, in Guernsey Folk Lore‎^[1], page 540:

     Trachier la ville par Torteval.

     To seek for the town by way of Torteval.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

Adjective

ville

1. definite singular of vill
2. plural of vill

Etymology 2

From Old Norse vilja, from Proto-Germanic *wiljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁-.

Verb

ville (present tense vil, simple past ville, past participle villet, present participle villende)

1. to want to, be willing to, shall, will, should
2. would

References

• “ville” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

ville

1. definite singular of vill
2. plural of vill

Verb

ville

1. past of vilja

Old French

Alternative forms

• vile
• vill (rare)

Etymology

From Latin vīlla.

Noun

ville oblique singular, f (oblique plural villes, nominative singular ville, nominative plural villes)

1. city or town

Descendants

• Franc-Comtois: vèlle
• Middle French: ville
  • French: ville
• Norman: ville

See also

• cité
• vilage

Swedish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /²vɪlːɛ/

Verb

ville

1. past indicative of vilja