tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Tue Jul 28 08:09:51 2009

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Re: News from Maltz

Michael Everson ([email protected])



On 28 Jul 2009, at 03:40, ghunchu'wI' wrote:

> 1) The noun {vIlle'} means something close to "minion".  [The word  
> in English is often used to refer to a loyal or even fawning servant  
> of someone who is typically considered powerful.  Compare with  
> "henchman", who has the same general job but is usually a mercenary.]

Ah. Compare feudal "villain". Wikipedia:

"Villain comes from the Anglo-French and Old French 'vilein', which  
itself descends from the Late Latin word 'villanus' meaning  
'farmhand.' Someone who is bound to the soil of a 'villa', which is to  
say, worked on the equivalent of a plantation in Late Antiquity, in  
Italy or Gaul. It referred to a person of less than knightly status  
and so came to mean a person who was not chivalrous. As a result of  
many unchivalrous acts, such as treachery or rape, being considered  
villainous, in the modern sense the word, it became used as a term of  
abuse and eventually took on its modern meaning."

Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com/







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