villainy

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
villain /ˈvɪlən/

▶noun

• 1 a wicked person or a person guilty of a crime.

  ■ (in a play or novel) a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.

• 2 archaic variant spelling of villein.

– derivatives
villainous adjective,
villainously adverb,
villainousness noun,
villainy noun (pl. villainies).

– origin ME (in the sense ‘a rustic’): from OFr. vilein, based on L. villa (see villa).