[Partly a. L. villa country-house, farm, etc., perhaps a diminutive from the stem of vīcus village, hamlet, country-seat; partly a. It. villa (whence also F., Sp. and Pg. villa) from the same source.]
1. Orig., a country mansion or residence, together with a farm, farm-buildings, or other houses attached, built or occupied by a person of some position and wealth; a country seat or estate; in later and more general use, a residence in the country, or in the neighborhood of a town, usually of some size and architectural elegance and standing in its own grounds.
a. Among the ancient Romans, Greeks, etc.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., IV. 274. Passing by Ciceros Villa, euen at this day so called, where yet do remaine the ruines of his Academy.
1644. Stapylton, Juvenal, I. 111. Who built so many villa’s? when wast knowne Our Fathers with seven dishes supt alone?
1697. Walsh, Life Virgil, ¶ 3. The beautiful Villa’s of the Roman Nobility, equalling the Magnificence of the greatest Kings.
1771. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), IV. 254. Pliny has left us descriptions of two of his villas. As he used his Laurentine villa for his winter retreat [etc.].
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxxvi. (1787), III. 443. The villa was pleasantly seated on the margin of the lake.
1797. S. Lysons, Rom. Antiq. Woodchester, 16. The remains of a Roman house, or rather, perhaps, of a villa.
1832. G. R. Porter, Porcelain & Gl., xiii. 269. The ruins of a villa built by Tiberius in the island of Capri.
1838. Thirlwall, Greece, V. 97. The dwellings which were thickly scattered in the neighbourhood of the capital … seem to have been chiefly villas of the more opulent Spartans.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, iv. 32. Their great men had country houses and villas, the surest sign of a settled state of society.
b. With reference to modern Italy or other Continental countries.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 139. A certaine Gentleman called Bassano … liued at a villa that he had in the country.
1636. Massinger, Gt. Dk. Florence, I. i. And how, I pray you, (For we, that never look beyond our villas, Must be inquisitive) are state affairs Carried in court?
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 27 Feb. 1644. We went to see Cardinal Richelieu’s villa at Ruell. Ibid., 10 Nov. 1644. We went to see Prince Ludovisio’s villa…. The house is very magnificent, and the extent of the ground is exceeding large.
1737. [S. Berington], G. di Lucca’s Mem. (1738), 238. Their Villa’s, or Palaces of Pleasure, are scattered all over the Country.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 510. The road from Pistoia to Florence … exhibits no villa’s or plantations to the view, and consequently … there’s the greater number of them in the neighbourhood of Florence.
1806. Dallaway, Observ. Eng. Archit., x. 232. The capricious lightness of an Italian villa.
1838. Murray’s Handbk. N. Germ., 320/1. On the borders of the Havel … is the little villa of Glienecke, once the residence of the minister Von Hardenberg.
1905. ‘G. Thorne,’ Lost Cause, iii. The gay villa at Nice by the old citadel of Mont-Albano.
c. In English use. Now merged in next.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac., III. Misc., III. ii. 184, note. Behold the Disposition and Order of these finer sorts of Apartments, Gardens, Villa’s!
1748. Hartley, Observ. Man, I. iv. § 1. 427. The Villas and Cabinets of the Noble, the Rich, and the Curious.
1799. Med. Jrnl., I. 338. The profits of some of whom are so extravagant, as to support them in enormous magnificent town-houses and country villas.
1830. Praed, Poems (1865), II. 227. Hurrying madly after marriage To some lord’s villa.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 1677. A villa should always form part of a village, and be placed, if possible, on rather higher ground.
1842. Gwilt, Archit., § 3000. The villas at Foot’s Cray and Mereworth, imitations of Palladio’s Villa, Capra,… are the maxima of villas: beyond this the villa becomes a mansion.
fig. 1742. Young, Nt. Th., IX. 1732. What behold I now? A wilderness of wonders burning round;… Perhaps the villas of descending gods!
d. Hence, any residence of a superior or handsome type, or of some architectural pretension, in the suburbs of a town or in a residential district, such as is occupied by a person of the middle-class; also, any small better-class dwelling-house, usually one which is detached or semi-detached.
The word is frequently employed in the names given to particular houses of this type, as Windsor Villa.
1755. Johnson, Connoisseur, No. 81, ¶ 4. I cannot help observing, that persons polite enough to be fond of such exquisite refinements, are partly in the same case with the mechanic at his dusty Villa.
1781. Cowper, Retirem., 481. Suburban villas, highway-side retreats, That dread th’ encroachment of our growing streets.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France (1889), 114. To Havre de Grace,… the hills almost covered with little new built villas.
1825. C. M. Westmacott, Engl. Spy, I. 318. Incongruous edifices, called villas.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 349. No long avenues of villas, embowered in lilacs and laburnums, extended from the great centre of wealth.
1853. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour, ii. 6. The farm houses are dotted about as thickly … as to look like inferior ‘villas’ falling out of rank.
1882. Miss Braddon, Mt. Royal, II. ix. 167. I wish you would let me build you a villa at Torquay or Dartmouth.
† 2. (See quot.) Obs.–1
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 6 May 1645. In these [valleys] are faire Parks or Gardens call’d Villas, being onely places of recesse and pleasure, at some distance from the streetes, yet within the walls [of Rome].
3. attrib. and Comb. a. Simple attrib. (passing into adj.), as villa architecture, garden, -gate, style, -work, etc.; villa-house, † (a) a house attached to a villa; (b) a villa residence; villa dwelling, residence, = VILLA 1 c, d.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 10 Nov. 1644. In the villa-house is a man’s body,… petrified.
1813. Scott, Lett., 13 March, in Lockhart. What I shall finally make of this villa-work I don’t know.
1828. R. Lugar (title), Villa Architecture.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 1620. All the essential comforts of a villa dwelling. Ibid., § 1624. Of the Choice of a Situation for a Villa Residence.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, IV. iii. A … dwelling-house, built in what is called a villa style, with a variety of gardens and conservatories.
1855. Browning, Old Pict. in Florence, i. The aloed arch Of the villa-gate.
1876. ‘Ouida,’ Winter City, xii. 367. Mme. Mila was organising alfresco dinners in villa gardens.
b. In instrumental or similative combs., as villa-dotted, -haunted, -like adjs. Also in objective or obj. gen. combs., as villa dweller, owner, etc.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 264/1. The houses are for the most part neat and villa-like.
1870. Miss Craik, Fair France, 154. Flat, tame, and villa-haunted, what we should call Cockneyfied.
1881. Miss Braddon, Asphodel, III. 148. The smiling waters of Thun, with its villa-dotted shores.
a. 1894. Stevenson, Lay Morals, etc. (1911), 123. It is … from the villa-dweller that we hear complaints of the unworthiness of life.
1898. Engineering Mag., XVI. 35. This sort of villa-owner’s selfishness.
Hence (in nonce-use) Villaette, a small villa; Villafy v. trans., (a) to turn into a villa; (b) to cover with villas.
1836. Tait’s Mag., III. 563. Sweet nestling cottages and *villaettes upon the shrubby braes.
1862. W. H. Russell, Diary North & South (1863), I. 274. Pretty villarettes [sic] in charming groves of magnolia, orange-trees, and lime oaks.
1866. Daily Telegraph, 26 Nov., 2/5. Owing to building encroachments and the manner in which the neighbourhood is being *‘villafied,’ the Steeplechase Committee were compelled to seek new ground.
1884. Harper’s Mag., Aug., 338/1. [The château] has … been … restored and villafied.
1887. Oxford Mag., 9 March, 129. A railway which would villa-fy the shores of Rydal.
