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Etymology and origin of the English word vail

Pronunciation

vail1 avail; gratuity

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1300 Dame Sirith
Borrowed from
Anglo-Norman vailer via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin valeō
Etymology tree of vail1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin valeo
French valoir
Italian valere
English vail
From the same root · vail1
English valiant ← valeo
Latin aequivaleo ← valeo
Latin praevaleo ← valeo
Latin valesco ← valeo
Latin valor ← valeo

Etymology

The verb meaning to avail is inherited from Middle English vailen, also vaile and vaillen,[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman vailer, also vailler,[3][2] forms of Old French valoir (“to be worth”) built on its stressed stem,[3][4][5][6] from Latin valeō (“to be strong, be of worth”).[4][5][6] The Anglo-Norman verb is recorded from 1121–25, meaning to be worth, to be valid, and to help or avail.[7] The noun vail, profit and later a gratuity, is from the verb,[8][5][6] and the OED takes it as probably partly from vaille (“value, worth”) and partly from the verb or a shortened form of the noun avail.[3] Etymonline compares the noun avail and traces the French verb to the source of value.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To be of use or benefit to a person, to help: the OED's first record is from before 1300, in Dame Sirith;[3] Etymonline dates the verb to about 1300.[8] The MED's earliest quotation, from Sir Tristrem (about 1330), says a spear thrust "no vailed o botoun", it did not help a button's worth.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb meant to be of use or benefit, often in negative or questioning phrases,[3][2][6] to be legally valid (before 1325) and to prevail (before 1400);[3] Gower used vaileth twice.[9] The phrase vail that vail might, come what may, is recorded about 1500.[3] The verb went out of use in the 17th century except as an archaism, in which the OED records it until 1813.[6][3] The noun first meant advantage or profit (from about 1435, in Lydgate),[3][5] and in Scotland also value or worth and legal validity.[3] From about 1460 it was used of an occasional payment that came with an office in addition to its salary,[3][4] and after 1592 in the plural of cast-off things that a servant could claim by custom.[3] From 1605 vails were the tips that a departing guest gave to the servants of a house;[3][5][10] Jonson used the verb vail for giving them (1609).[3] In the 19th century the noun survived in the Isle of Wight and southern dialect for progress or dispatch.[3][11]

Timeline

  • before 1300 – verb, to be of use to, to help.[3]
  • before 1325 – of a law, to be valid.[3]
  • c. 1330 – to be of use or profit.[3][2]
  • before 1400 – to prevail.[3]
  • c. 1435 – noun, advantage, benefit, profit (obsolete by 1550).[3]
  • c. 1460 – a perquisite or payment in addition to a salary.[3]
  • 1592 – plural, things a servant may claim by custom.[3]
  • 1604 – a bribe.[3]
  • 1605 – a tip to servants, especially from a departing guest.[3]
  • 1609 – verb, to give vails.[3]
  • 1847 – in dialect, progress.[3][11]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (archaic) To avail; to be of use or profit.[4][6][12]

Noun

  1. (archaic) A gratuity or tip given to servants, especially by a departing guest; usually in the plural, vails.[3][12][5]
  2. (archaic) An occasional fee or perquisite that goes with an office in addition to its pay.[4][3]
  3. (obsolete) Advantage, benefit or profit.[3][5][6]

vail2 lower, doff

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing, Clipping
First attested
c. 1330 Robert Mannyng's Chronicle
From
Old French avaler via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Latin vallēs

Etymology

The verb meaning to lower is inherited from Middle English valen, also vale and vaile,[2] which most dictionaries take as a shortened form of avalen, later avale,[4][13][14][5][6][10] from Old French avaler (“to lower, let fall”),[4][14][15] from the phrase a val (“down”), literally "to the valley",[13][14][16] from Latin ad vallem (“to the valley”), from ad (“to”) and vallēs (“valley”).[16][15][10] The MED and the OED also allow a direct borrowing of the rare valer,[2][3] which is recorded in Anglo-Norman from the late 13th century in the sense "to let down",[7] and Merriam-Webster derives the word partly from valer and partly from the Middle English verb.[4][17] The American Heritage Dictionary places the Latin noun under the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *wel-.[16] The word is related to vale and valley.[16][18]

Earliest recorded meaning

To lower a weapon or a shield: about 1330, in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle, where a knight "valede his scheld a party".[3][2] Merriam-Webster dates the first use to the 14th century.[4]

Semantic evolution

Early uses were mostly of lowering a weapon, a banner or a sail,[3][14] and the Oxford Dictionary of English notes that the verb first meant lowering them as a sign of submission.[14] From about 1450 it was used of taking off a hat or other headdress out of respect,[3][5] and in the 16th century vail the bonnet, to lower a sail as a salute, was a nautical phrase;[3][10] Purchas wrote of ships charged to "vail the bonnet" to the King of Spain.[10] The salute gave a figurative sense, to give way or acknowledge oneself surpassed (from 1579),[3] and a wider one, to humble or abase (1582–1827).[3] From 1586 one could vail one's eyes or head.[3] Shakespeare used a noun vail for the setting of the sun in Troilus and Cressida (1609).[3][6] The verb is now archaic.[6][5][15]

Timeline

  • c. 1330 – to lower a weapon, banner, etc.[3][2]
  • c. 1450 – to take off a hat, especially out of respect.[3]
  • 1509 – to lower a sail as a salute, especially vail the bonnet (obsolete by 1678).[3]
  • 1553 – nautical, to lower a sail (obsolete by 1661).[3]
  • 1579 – figurative, to yield, give way.[3]
  • 1582 – to humble, abase (obsolete by 1827).[3]
  • 1586 – to cast down the eyes, bow the head.[3]
  • 1599 – to lower in sign of submission or respect.[3]
  • 1609 – noun, the setting of the sun, in Shakespeare.[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (archaic) To lower or let fall something, such as a weapon, a flag or the eyes, especially as a sign of submission or respect.[4][15][6]
  2. (archaic) To take off one's hat as a mark of respect: He vailed his cap to the bishop.[4][15][3]

Word family

  • vailer

Usage notes

Johnson (1755) entered vail as a noun meaning a curtain or cover, and noted that the word was by then often written veil; this vail is only an old spelling of veil.[19][12]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  10. ^ a b c d e Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  11. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  12. ^ a b c The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
  13. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ a b c d e Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  17. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
  18. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  19. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Vail.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/vail. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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