valley

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈvæl.i/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English valei,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman valey, Old French valee, earlier vallede,^[2][4][5] from Vulgar Latin *vallāta,^[4][5] from Latin vallis (“valley”) or vallēs,^[2][4] a word of unknown origin.^[2] It is related to vale.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A long hollow between hills or mountains: 1297 in the OED,^[7] about 1300 in Etymonline,^[2] and probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder, according to Barnhart.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The figurative valley of the shadow of death and valley of tears are from 1382, in the Wycliffe Bible;^[7] the Valley of Death of the 23rd Psalm was rendered in Middle English as Helldale.^[2] Often the basin of a stream, it came to mean the region drained by a river, from about 1790.^[2][7] A depression suggesting a valley, as a trough between waves, is from 1611,^[7] and a low region of a graph from 1935.^[7] The Valley Girl, after the San Fernando Valley of California, was popularised in 1982 by a song of Frank Zappa and his daughter.^[2] In dialect a valley was any small channel or hollow, as a gutter.^[8]

Timeline

• 1297 – a valley.^[7]
• 1382 – valley of the shadow of death.^[7]
• 1611 – a hollow, as between waves.^[7]
• c. 1790 – a river basin.^[7]
• 1935 – a low region of a graph.^[7]
• 1982 – Valley Girl.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A long, low area between hills or mountains, often with a river running through it.
2. A large area of land drained by a river system: the Mississippi valley.
3. A hollow or depression resembling a valley.
4. The angle where two slopes of a roof meet.

Word family

• valleyed
• valleylike

Related words

• dale
• dell
• glen
• strath
• vale
• avalanche
• vaudeville

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ 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)