a combining form extracted from place names ending in -ville, used in the coinage of informal nonce words, usually pejorative, that characterize a place, person, group, or situation (dullsville; disasterville; Mediaville ) or that name a condition (embarrassmentville; gloomsville ).
Origin: ultimately < Frenchville city; see bidonville
suffix sporadically in vogue since c.1840 (cf. dullsville, palookaville), abstracted from the -ville in place names (Louisville, Greenville, etc.), from O.Fr. ville "town," from L. villa (see villa).
