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vale

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vale1 valley

Pronunciation

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]
  • valley
  • valediction
  • valiant
  • vallum
  • vail

Usage notes

The OED gives the farewell an anglicized pronunciation, /ˈveɪli/,[5] and Merriam-Webster the Latin-style /ˈvɑːleɪ/, also with /w-/.[12] Johnson (1755) entered a vale meaning money given to servants, which Dryden spelled vails; he thought it came from vale farewell rather than from avail.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  14. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  16. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  17. ^ 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)
  18. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins