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

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvæleɪ/, /ˈvælɪt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvæleɪ/, /væˈleɪ/, /ˈvælɪt/
• Rhymes: -ælɪt, -æleɪ, -eɪ

Noun

valet (plural valets)

1. A man's personal male attendant, responsible for his clothes and appearance.

   Synonyms: (proscribed) butler, gentleman's gentleman

2. A hotel employee performing such duties for guests.
3. (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.
4. A female chaperone who accompanies a man, and is usually not married to him.
5. (US) A person employed to clean or park cars.

   Synonym: parking attendant

6. A person employed to assist the jockey and trainer at a racecourse.
7. A wooden stand on which to hold clothes and accessories in preparation for dressing.
8. A kind of goad or stick with an iron point.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

valet (third-person singular simple present valets, present participle valeting, simple past and past participle valeted)

1. (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, chapter 7, in Marazan‎, London: Cassell:

     […] the red-haired boy who had valeted me in the morning appeared in a plain suit of black.

2. (transitive, chiefly UK, Ireland) To clean and service (a car), as a valet does.
   • 2017 March 7, 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”, in The Irish Sun:

     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.”

3. (transitive, US) To leave (a car) with a valet to park it.
   • 2012 May 30, Jay Weston, “One of the Most Eligible Bachelors in L.A. Has 55 Ferraris.. and Takes Me for a Drive in One!”, in The Huffington Post:

     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 February 11, Rosalie R. Radomsky, “Emma Ludbrook and Tom Windish: Their First Date Was a Big Production”, in The New York Times:

     “‘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.”

References

• “valet”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “valet”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.

Further reading

• Valet in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• Valet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Crimean Tatar

Etymology

Borrowed from Russian валет (valet).

Noun

valet

1. (card games) jack

Declension

References

• “valet”, in Luğatçıq (in Russian)

Estonian

Noun

valet

1. partitive singular of vale

French

Etymology

Inherited 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)

1. (history) a male attendant of a knight or a lord
2. (history) officer belonging to the king's house or a princely house, also valet de chambre
3. a male servant, a footman
4. a wooden stand on which to hold clothes and accessories in preparation for dressing, also valet de nuit
5. (card games) jack

Derived terms

• valet d’écurie

Descendants

• → Bulgarian: вале́ (valé)
• → Greek: βαλές (valés)
• → Portuguese: valete
• → Russian: вале́т (valét)
  • → Ingrian: valetti
• → 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 , 2012.

Anagrams

• levât

Latin

Verb

valet

1. third-person singular present active indicative of valeō

Middle French

Etymology

Old French vaslet.

Noun

valet m (plural valets)

1. manservant; (male) attendant

Descendants

• French: valet

Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from French valet.

Noun

valet m (plural valets)

1. (Jersey) This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
2. (Jersey, card games) jack

Derived terms

• valet d'fèrme (“farmhand”)

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

valet n

1. singular definite of val

Portuguese

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Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from French valet.

Pronunciation

Noun

valet m or f by sense (plural valets)

1. valet (a person employed to park cars)

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French valet.

Noun

valet m (plural valeți)

1. valet

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French valet.

Noun

valet m (plural valets)

1. (card games) jack, knave

Further reading

• “valet”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Swedish

Noun

valet

1. definite singular of val

Anagrams

• levat, velat