I woke up this morning wondering about the difference between a village, a town, and a city. Well, then hamlet popped to mind. No, not Shakespeare’s Hamlet *grin*.
With but one click on the Internet I ran across “Settlement Hierarchy”. Well, that opened it up. Conurbation?? Oy.
I’ve frequently considered what might be the differences between a village and a town, and with this new pile of info, yep, you’re stuck with my exploration of this extended word confusion, starting with isolated dwelling vs hamlet vs village.
It’s hard to think of an isolated dwelling as a community, consisting as it does of a MAXIMUM of one to two households, but fair’s fair.
A hamlet begins at three households and is smaller than a village AND lacking a place of worship.
A village is bigger than a hamlet WITH a place of worship and usually centers around a common point, such as a village green or a market square.
Exploring Later . . .
You might want to explore the borough in “Borough vs Burro vs Burrow” or “Home versus House“.
Word Confusions . . .
. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.
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| Isolated Dwelling | Hamlet | Village |
|---|---|---|
Isolated Dwelling at Callakille by Jennifer Jones is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Georgraph.org.uk. |
.jpg "Without a place of worship, this is actually a hamlet.")
Fishing Village, Ha-Long Bay, Vietnam, is Christophe Meneboeuf own work and is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Without a place of worship, this is actually a hamlet. |
Church in a Village by Peter Morvay is in the public domain, via Pexels. |
| Part of Grammar: | ||
| Noun
Plural: isolated dwellings A.k.a. isolated settlement |
Noun, common
Plural: hamlets |
Adjective; Noun
Plural: villages |
| Noun: The smallest kind of human settlements, with a maximum of two housholds |
Common Noun: A small settlement, generally one smaller than a village [New York state] An unincorporated community that is within a town and is not a part of a village [Britain] A village without its own church or other place of worship |
Adjective: Of, relating to, or characteristic of a village Noun:
A group of animal dwellings resembling a village |
| Examples: | ||
| Noun: The whole settlement consists of only one or two households. “Millie, did you hear that a new family is building a house and moving in?” Many frontier ranches could be considered isolated dwellings. |
Common Noun: The house is in a quiet hamlet overlooking open countryside. “She was gone to Sloman’s End, a hamlet about three miles off, over the hill, the old woman told him — had set off directly after morning chapel, to preach in a cottage there, as her habit was” (Eliot, ch 54). Residents in Grand Gorge have formed an action group responsible for enhancing their hamlet in appearance and quality of life. Hamlets such as Graby and Shapwick in Great Britain resulted from depopulation. |
Adjective: Don’t mind him, he’s our village idiot. Helena discovered that she loved the village life. I love this place! It has that village atmosphere. Noun: The Olympic village is home for many athletes during this event. Greenwood Village is a smaller community within in Arapahoe County in Colorado. She married a local villager from the village down the road. “Some geographers specifically define a village as having between 500 and 2,500 inhabitants” (Village). “In most parts of the world, villages are settlements of people clustered around a central point” (Village). “Greenwich Village in New York City, United States, for instance, has enjoyed a reputation as an artistic enclave for more than a century” (Village). The global village is shorthand for a world connected by electronic devices. “Watch out for holes in the ground,” she said, calling out to her cousin. “There’s a gopher village in that field.” |
| Derivatives: | ||
| Adjective: intervillage, village-like, villageless, villagey, villagy Noun: villager |
||
| History of the Word: | ||
| Unknown. | Middle English from the Old French hamelet, diminutive of hamel meaning little village and related to home (hám in Old English). | Late Middle English from the Old French, which is from the Latin villa meaning country house. |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.
Resources for Isolated Settlement vs Hamlet vs Village
Some of these links may be affiliate links, and I will earn a small percentage, if you should buy it. It does not affect the price you pay.
Apple Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com: village
Eliot, George. Adam Bede. Originally published 1859. anboco, 2016. <https://amzn.to/3TzDQpg>. Ebook.
The Free Dictionary: hamlet
“Settlement Hierarchy.” Wikipedia. 1 Feb 2024. Accessed 27 Mar 2024. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlement_hierarchy>.
“Village.” National Geographic. n.d. Accessed 27 Mar 2024. <https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/village/>.
Pinterest Photo Credits
Countryside Houses and Lake is in the public domain, via Free Range Stock. Kingston Village, East Sussex, England, by Mark is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Flickr.
