By cntraveler.com | Eloise Stark | 8/20/2024 12:14 PM
The Zabbaleen people of Mansheyat Nasir have developed one of the world’s most efficient recycling systems, turning trash into treasure. ... Read full Story
By cntraveler.com | Kate Nelson | 8/17/2024 5:00 AM
Inuit throat singing has always mimicked the surrounding environment. For so long, that was the blustery Arctic—but new generations in Canada’s cities are evolving the sound. ... Read full Story
By cntraveler.com | Lale Arikoglu | 8/17/2024 5:00 AM
Long a sacred space for catharsis and healing, the smoke-filled dance floors of Pristina have become the backdrop to a changing country. ... Read full Story
Once Zambia's leading genre, Zamrock is seeing a resurgence—everywhere from the recording studios of Lusaka to the bars in New York City's West Village. ... Read full Story
“The eagerness to vilify ‘the other side’—usually on social media—complicates the less reactionary work that defines our mission.” — Jerry Brewer, The Washington Post, 11 June 2024
Did you know?
It seems reasonable to assume that the words vilify and villain come from the same source; after all, to vilify someone is—in some ways—to make them out to be a villain. Such is not the case, however. Although the origin stories of both vilify and villain involve Latin, their roots are quite different. Vilify came to English (via Middle English and Late Latin) from the Latin adjective vilis, meaning “cheap” or “vile.” Someone who has been vilified, accordingly, has had their reputation tarnished or cheapened in such a way that they’re viewed as morally reprehensible. Villain on the other hand, comes from the Medieval Latin word villanus, meaning “villager,” and ultimately from the Latin noun villa, meaning “house.” The Middle English descendent of villanus developed the meaning of “a person of uncouth mind and manners” due to the vilifying influence of the aristocracy of the time, and the connotations worsened from there until villain came to refer to (among other things), a deliberate scoundrel.