VILL, the Anglicized form of the word villa, used in Latin documents to translate the Anglo-Saxon tun, township. Ultimately "vill" and "township" became regarded as equivalent terms, and so remained in legal use until the ecclesiastical parish became regarded as the normal unit of local administration. In classical Latin villa had meant "country-house," "farm," "villa" (see VILLA) ; but even by the 3rd century it had acquired the sense of "village." Later it even displaced civitas, for city; thus Rutilius Namatianus in his Itinerarium speaks of villae ingentes, oppida parva; whence the French ville (see Du Cange, Glossariuni lat. s.v. Villa). In the Frankish empire villa was also used of the
royal and imperial palaces or seats with their appurtenances. In the sense of a small collection of habitations the word came into general use in England in the French form "village." From villa, too, are derived villein and villeinage (q.v.).