vill

vill is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 1 sense. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.A small collection of houses; a village. "Every manor, town, or vill." Sir M. Hale. Not should e'er the crested fowl From thorp or vill his matins sound for me. Wordsworth. Note: A word of various significations in English, law; as, a manor; a tithing; a town; a township; a parish; a part of a parish; a village. The original meaning of vill, in England, seems to have been derived from the Roman sense of the term villa, a single country residence or farm; a manor. Later, the term was applied only to a collection of houses more than two, and hence came to comprehend towns. Burrill. The statute of Exeter, 14 Edward I., mentions entire- vills, demivills, and hamlets.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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