vilanie

Middle English

Noun

vilanie (plural vilanies)

1. villainy
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Wyfe of Bathes Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:

     They mighten do no vilanie or vice.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Old French

Alternative forms

• vilainie
• vileinie
• vilenie

Noun

vilanie oblique singular, f (oblique plural vilanies, nominative singular vilanie, nominative plural vilanies)

1. evil
2. insult; malicious comment

References

• vileinie on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub