valet
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French valet, from Old French vaslet, from Medieval Latin *vassellittus, diminutive of Late Latin vassallus (“manservant, domestic, retainer”), from vassus (“servant”), from Gaulish *wassos (“young man, squire”), from Proto-Celtic *wastos (“servant”) (compare Old Irish foss and Welsh gwas).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈvæleɪ/, /ˈvælɪt/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (US) IPA(key): /ˈvæleɪ/, /væˈleɪ/, /ˈvælɪt/
- Rhymes: -ælɪt, -æleɪ, -eɪ
Noun
valet (plural valets)
- A man's personal male attendant, responsible for his clothes and appearance.
- A hotel employee performing such duties for guests.
- (professional wrestling) A female performer in professional wrestling, acting as either a manager or personal chaperone; often used to attract and titillate male members of the audience.
- A female chaperone who accompanies a man, and is usually not married to him.
- (US) A person employed to clean or park cars.
- Synonym: parking attendant
- A person employed to assist the jockey and trainer at a racecourse.
- A wooden stand on which to hold clothes and accessories in preparation for dressing.
- A kind of goad or stick with an iron point.
Synonyms
- (personal attendant): butler (proscribed), gentleman's gentleman
Translations
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Verb
valet (third-person singular simple present valets, present participle valeting, simple past and past participle valeted)
- (transitive) To serve (someone) as a valet.
- 1866, Wilkie Collins, Armadale, London: Smith, Elder & Co., Volume I, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 163,
- You can valet me, can you? Bother valeting me! I like to put on my own clothes, and brush them, too, when they are on; and if I only knew how to black my own boots, by George I should like to do it!
- 1926, Neville Shute, Marazan, London: Cassell, Chapter Seven,
- […] the red-haired boy who had valeted me in the morning appeared in a plain suit of black.
- 1866, Wilkie Collins, Armadale, London: Smith, Elder & Co., Volume I, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 163,
- (transitive, chiefly UK, Ireland) To clean and service (a car), as a valet does.
- 2017, Stephen Maguire, “Hero Irish dad reveals he had to tell car valet he ‘wasn’t up to anything illegal’ after wife gave birth on back seat on Donegal road,” The Irish Sun, 7 March, 2017,
- He revealed: “We had been through a lot and I decided the car needed to be cleaned out after Georgina had to deliver the baby in the car.
- “You can imagine the scene when I left the car in for valeting. I got some funny looks and I had to explain to the guy that I wasn’t up to anything illegal because it did look a bit like a crime scene.”
- 2017, Stephen Maguire, “Hero Irish dad reveals he had to tell car valet he ‘wasn’t up to anything illegal’ after wife gave birth on back seat on Donegal road,” The Irish Sun, 7 March, 2017,
- (transitive, US) To leave (a car) with a valet to park it.
- 2012, Jay Weston, “One of the Most Eligible Bachelors in L.A. Has 55 Ferraris.. and Takes Me for a Drive in One!” The Huffington Post, 30 May, 2012,
- I asked Giacomo if he ever valeted his car, and he twisted his face into a grimace as he replied, “Rarely, but I have done it. Nervous time.”
- 2017, Rosalie R. Radomsky, “Emma Ludbrook and Tom Windish: Their First Date Was a Big Production,” The New York Times, 11 February, 2017,
- “‘Is this a date?’” Ms. Ludbrook recalled thinking during dinner. “I had valeted my car, and he hadn’t. He said, ‘Bye,’ and went to his car. Clearly this was not a date.”
- 2012, Jay Weston, “One of the Most Eligible Bachelors in L.A. Has 55 Ferraris.. and Takes Me for a Drive in One!” The Huffington Post, 30 May, 2012,
References
- “valet”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “valet” in the Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Further reading
- Valet in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
- Valet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Estonian
Noun
valet
- partitive singular of vale
French
Etymology
From Old French vaslet, from Medieval Latin *vassellittus, diminutive of Late Latin vassallus (“manservant, domestic, retainer”), from Latin vassus (“servant”), from Gaulish *wassos (“young man, squire”), from Proto-Celtic *wastos (“servant”) (compare Old Irish foss and Welsh gwas).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /va.lɛ/
Audio (file)
Noun
valet m (plural valets)
- (historical) a male attendant of a knight or a lord
- (historical) officer belonging to the king's house or a princely house, also valet de chambre
- a male servant, a footman
- a wooden stand on which to hold clothes and accessories in preparation for dressing, also valet de nuit
- (card games) jack
Derived terms
- valet d'écurie
Descendants
- → Portuguese: valete
- → Turkish: vale
See also
Playing cards in French · cartes à jouer (layout · text) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
as | deux | trois | quatre | cinq | six | sept |
huit | neuf | dix | valet | dame | roi | joker |
Further reading
- “valet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
- levât
Latin
Verb
valet
- third-person singular present active indicative of valeō
Middle French
Etymology
Old French vaslet.
Noun
valet m (plural valets)
- manservant; (male) attendant
Descendants
- French: valet
Norman
Etymology
Borrowed from French valet.
Noun
valet m (plural valets)
- (Jersey) This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text
{{rfdef}}
. - (Jersey, card games) jack
Derived terms
- valet d'fèrme (“farmhand”)
Norwegian Nynorsk
Noun
valet n
- singular definite of val
Portuguese
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from French valet.
Pronunciation
- (Brazil) IPA(key): /vaˈle/
- (Portugal) IPA(key): /vɐˈlɛ/
Noun
valet m or f by sense (plural valets)
- valet (a person employed to park cars)
Romanian
Etymology
From French valet.
Noun
valet m (plural valeți)
- valet
Declension
singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite articulation | definite articulation | indefinite articulation | definite articulation | |
nominative/accusative | (un) valet | valetul | (niște) valeți | valeții |
genitive/dative | (unui) valet | valetului | (unor) valeți | valeților |
vocative | valetule | valeților |
Spanish
Etymology
Borrowed from French valet.
Noun
valet m (plural valets)
- (card games) jack, knave
Further reading
- “valet”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
Swedish
Noun
valet
- definite singular of val.
Anagrams
- levat, velat