villain

a stereotypical villain (1 & 2)

Meanings

A vile, wicked person.
In fiction, a character who has the role of being bad, especially antagonizing the hero.
Any opponent player, especially a hypothetical player for example and didactic purposes. Compare: hero.

Probably from Middle English villein, from Old French vilein (modern French vilain), in turn from Late Latin villanus, meaning serf or peasant, someone who is bound to the soil of a Latin villa, which is to say, worked on the equivalent of a plantation in late Antiquity, in Italy or Gaul. villein.

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