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Origin and history of -ville

-ville

suffix sporadically in vogue since c. 1840 in U.S. colloquial word formation (such as dullsville, palookaville), abstracted from the -ville in place names (Louisville, Greenville, etc.), from Old French ville "town," from Latin villa (see villa).

also from c. 1840

Entries linking to -ville

villa(n.)

1610s, "country mansion of ancient Romans or modern Italians," from Italian villa "country house, villa, farm," from Latin villa "country house, farm," related to vicus "village, group of houses" (from suffixed form of PIE root *weik- (1) "clan"). In reference to modern structures in English-speaking lands by 1711, properly a country residence of some size and architectural pretention, but commonly misapplied by apartment block and tract-housing developers.

burg(n.)

"town, city," 1843, American English colloquial, from the many place names ending in -burg (see borough; also see -ville).

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Lyons
During the Revolution the place was renamed Ville-Affranchie "enfranchised town."...
vile
quality; disgusting, foul, ugly; degrading, humiliating; of low estate, without worldly honor or esteem," from Anglo-French ville...
coupe
Coup de ville is from 1931, originally a car with an open driver's position and an enclosed passenger compartment....
Marsellaise
the Revolution, the city was punished for its royalist Sympathies by being stripped of its name and called instead  Ville-sans-Nom...
vaudeville
1735, "a country song," especially one for the stage, from French vaudeville (16c.), alteration (by influence of ville "town...
town
place larger than a village" (mid-12c.) arose after the Norman conquest from the use of this word to correspond to French ville...
mafia
1875, from Italian Mafia "Sicilian secret society of criminals" (the prevailing sense outside Sicily), earlier, "spirit of hostility to the law and its ministers." A member is a mafioso (1870), fem. mafiosa, plural mafiosi, and this may be the older word in this sense. Arabic is
touch
late 13c., "make deliberate physical contact with," from Old French tochier "to touch, hit, knock; mention, deal with" (11c., Modern French toucher), from Vulgar Latin *toccare "to knock, strike" as a bell (source also of Spanish tocar, Italian toccare), perhaps of imitative orig
conciliate
"overcome distrust or hostility of by soothing and pacifying," 1540s, from Latin conciliatus, past participle of conciliare "to bring together, unite in feelings, make friendly," from concilium "a meeting, a gathering of people," from assimilated form of com "together, together w
prejudice
c. 1300, "despite, contempt," from Old French prejudice "a prejudice, prejudgment; damage" (13c.) and directly from Medieval Latin prejudicium "injustice," from Latin praeiudicium "prior judgment, judicial examination before trial; damage, harm," from prae- "before" (see pre-) +

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