vale

vale¹ valley

Etymology tree of vale¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin vallis

English vale

From the same root · vale¹

Latin convallis ← vallis

Pronunciation

• /veɪl/^[1]

Etymology

The valley is inherited from Middle English vale, also wale and vaal,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French val (“valley”),^[5][6][7][8] inherited from Latin vallis, also vallēs (“valley”).^[5][6][3][9] Etymonline dates the Old French word to the 12th century,^[6] and in Anglo-Norman it is recorded from the mid-12th century, meaning both a valley and, as an adverb, downwards.^[10] The Latin noun is also the source of valle, valle and vale.^[5][11] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster relate it to volvō (“to roll”),^[3][12] and Klein and the American Heritage Dictionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to turn, roll”), probably the same root as that of vallum (“wall”).^[13][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A valley, with of and the valley's name: before 1300, in the Cursor Mundi.^[5] Barnhart reads the form wale in that poem, before 1325, and finds vale from about 1400;^[14][3] Etymonline dates the word to the early 14th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word named a low area between higher ground, often with a stream, and also a pleasant wooded retreat or a battlefield.^[2] From the early 15th century it was used figuratively,^[5] above all of the world as a place of trouble and weeping: vale of tears is recorded from about 1400,^[6] and this vale in this sense from 1435, in Misyn's translation of Rolle.^[5] From about 1446, in Lydgate, it also meant the world as the scene of life, as in earthly vale.^[5][15] Shakespeare's Othello gave the phrase the vale of years, old age.^[6][5] Hunters used it for a groove in a hart's antler, and it also meant the notch of a barbed arrowhead, both rare and long obsolete.^[5] Johnson (1755) already called it a poetical word,^[16] and the Century Dictionary (1895) found it little used except in poetry.^[6] Today it is archaic or poetic except in place names.^[15][11] In Berkshire dialect the Vale was the country along the Thames valley around Didcot.^[17]

Timeline

• before 1300 – a valley, with of and its name, in the Cursor Mundi.^[5]
• before 1325 – the form wale,^[3] and vale about 1400.^[3]
• c. 1400 – a valley, in Cleanness;^[5] vale of tears.^[6]
• 1412–20 – figurative uses, in Lydgate.^[5]
• 1435 – the world as a place of sorrow.^[5]
• c. 1446 – the world as the scene of life.^[5]
• before 1616 – the vale of years, old age, in Othello.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) A valley, especially a wide and fairly flat one; now chiefly in poetry and place names: a farmhouse in the vale below.^{[18][15][12][5]}
2. The world or earthly life, especially as a place of sorrow: this vale of tears.^[12][15][5]
3. the vale of years: (literary) old age.^[15][5]

vale² farewell

Pronunciation

• /ˈvɑːleɪ/^[1]

Etymology

The farewell is borrowed from Latin valē (“farewell”), the second person singular imperative of valeō (“to be strong, be well”).^{[5][7][12][4][13]} The American Heritage Dictionary traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *wal- (“to be strong”),^[7] and Merriam-Webster connects it with wield.^[12] Klein relates it to valiant.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Farewell, goodbye, as an interjection: about 1555, in Coverdale's translation of a treatise on death by Werdmueller.^[5] The Shorter Oxford dates it to the mid-16th century.^[15]

Semantic evolution

Used as a noun, a spoken or written farewell or a leave-taking, it is recorded from 1583, in Greene's Mamillia.^[5][15] It has stayed a learned Latin word: Collins still labels it Latin,^[18] and the dictionaries give it a pronunciation of its own, quite unlike that of the valley word.^[12][5]

Timeline

• c. 1555 – interjection, farewell.^[5]
• 1583 – noun, a farewell greeting or letter.^[5]

Meanings

Interjection

1. Farewell; goodbye.^{[5][15][18][12]}

Noun

1. A farewell, spoken or written; a leave-taking.^[5][15][12]