Etymologically
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valley

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 20:10. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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

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)