A character or person who does evil things and opposes the hero in a story.
From Old French vilain, meaning a peasant or man of low birth, from Latin villanus related to villa (farm). Over time, the word shifted from describing social class to describing moral character, as peasants were stereotyped negatively in medieval literature.
Medieval storytellers borrowed the word 'villain' from the lower classes to mark evil characters, which reveals how prejudiced old stories were—they literally used class as a code for villainy, and the meaning stuck even though we don't use it for peasants anymore.
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