[f. VILLAGE sb. + -ER1.] One who lives in a village; now usually, a working-class inhabitant or native of a village.
1570. Levins, Manip., 80. A villager, villicus.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., I. ii. 172. Brutus had rather be a Villager, Then to repute himselfe a Sonne of Rome Vnder these hard Conditions.
1634. Milton, Comus, 166. Som harmles Villager Whom thrift keeps up about his Country gear.
1718. Rowe, trans. Lucan, I. 59. No chearful Maid nor Villager is seen.
1752. Young, Brothers, II. i. Each villager Is queen of her affections.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 47. Vast districts, which the nearest villagers took possession of.
1841. Lytton, Nt. & Morn., I. i. The desolate parsonage was committed to the charge of one of the villagers.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., IV. i. 314. All Frenchmen, alike townspeople and villagers, were free.
transf. 1634. W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp. (1865), 36. These waterie villagers [= fish] with thousands more, Doe passe and repasse neare the verdant shore.
Hence Villageress, a female villager, a village girl or woman.
1873. M. Collins, Miranda, II. 22. The villageresses were terribly jealous at first.
1894. A. D’Heristal, Discord. Life, 101. She was so indifferent about what the squiresses and villageresses might say about her.
