The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Village \Vil"lage\ (?; 48), n. [F., fr. L. villaticus belonging
   to a country house or villa. See Villa, and cf.
   Villatic.]
   A small assemblage of houses in the country, less than a town
   or city.
   [1913 Webster]

   Village cart, a kind of two-wheeled pleasure carriage
      without a top.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: Village, Hamlet, Town, City.

   Usage: In England, a hamlet denotes a collection of houses,
          too small to have a parish church. A village has a
          church, but no market. A town has both a market and a
          church or churches. A city is, in the legal sense, an
          incorporated borough town, which is, or has been, the
          place of a bishop's see. In the United States these
          distinctions do not hold.
          [1913 Webster]