English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From anti- +‎ villain.

Noun

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anti-villain (plural anti-villains)

  1. (fiction) A character who has or may have noble or honorable aims, but pursues them destructively.
    • 1994, Alistair M. Duckworth, The Improvement of the Estate: A Study of Jane Austen's Novels[1], Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, page 95:
      As much the anti-hero initially as Thorpe is anti-villain, Tinley's function in the first volume is to expose to Catherine various modes of triviality and affectation.
    • 2019, Martin Jay, “Sociology and the Heroism of Modern Life”, in Warren Breckman, Peter E. Gordon, editors, The Cambridge History of Modern European Thought: Volume II, The Twentieth Century, Cambridge University Press, page 19:
      The rise of the anti-hero as the protagonist of much of modern fiction was accompanied by the rise of what one might call the “anti-villain,” ironically understood as more interesting than his heroic counterpart.

Derived terms

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