valer

Forms

valer (first-person singular present valgo, first-person singular preterite valí, past participle valido)^[1] Old Spanish had the present subjunctive vala without /ɡ/;^[2] valgo, valga came in only late in the 15th century, by analogy with salgo.^[2] The short imperative val and the future valdré, with an inserted /d/, are shared with salir.^[2] Asturian has valir or balir.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin valeō (“to be strong, to be healthy”), already valer in Old Spanish.^[4][5][1] Latin used the verb also for a remedy that works, a law in force, an influential person, a coin “having the value” of so much, and in grammar a word that “means” something.^[6] Vox notes that the sense “to be worth so much” grew out of the first senses “to be strong, vigorous, healthy”.^[7]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese valer, Galician valer, Asturian valir, Catalan valer or Catalan valdre, French valoir and Italian valere.^[3][8][9] The Latin verb continues *walēō, from *h₂wl̥h₁éh₁yeti, a stative verb of the root *h₂welh₁- (“to rule, to be strong”).^[1][10] De Vaan compares Celtic words for rule and sovereignty; the OLD adds Old High German waltan (“to govern”) and a Tocharian word for “king”.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the verb to 1097.^[4] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) a girl wishes the hero el Criador vos vala “may the Creator help you”, the old sense “to protect, help”; the Auto de los Reyes Magos (c. 1180) already has the sense “to be worth”: todo esto non uale uno figo “all this is not worth a fig”.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish valer meant “to help, protect” (Berceo: the Virgin suele a sus siervos ennas cuitas valer “is wont to help her servants in their troubles”), “to be worth, have a price”, “to equal” and “to deserve esteem”;^[14][15] más vale “it is better” was common from the start.^[14][15] The sense “to protect” is now little used, mostly in pleas to God or the saints, which survive in the interjection ¡válgame Dios!.^[16][17] The Academy's dictionaries list a long series of senses: to yield, to amount to, to have a price, of coins to be current, to prevail, to serve as defence, to be valid.^[18][5]

In 1855 Baralt condemned hacer valer and valer la pena de as French turns, though valer la pena is now an ordinary phrase.^[19][1] The reflexive valerse de “to make use of” and valerse “to manage on one's own” are common, and in colloquial speech of Mexico, Central America and Bolivia me vale means “I don't care”; in Mexico valer is also said of a machine that stops working.^[16][1][20]

Timeline

• 1097 – the first record, as dated by Corominas.^[4]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses vala “may he help” (in a 14th-century copy).^[12]
• c. 1180 – the Auto de los Reyes Magos: non uale uno figo.^[12]
• 1208 – the Cortes de León decree that a law valiese por siempre “should be in force for ever”.^[12]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario says that the bigger and whiter pearls are, tanto valen mas.^[15]
• late 15th century – the forms valgo, valga replace valo, vala.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses valer precio with Latin valeo.^[21]
• 1516 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico: paño viejo que no valía cosa.^[22]
• 1843 – the Academy records ¡válgame Dios! and the proverb tanto vales cuanto tienes.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology, Latin valēre.^[23]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To protect, help, support.^[5][16]
2. (transitive) To bring, earn or cause: su descuido le valió una multa.^[5]
3. (transitive) Of figures and accounts, to amount to.^[5]
4. (transitive) To cost, to be worth a given price: ¿cuánto vale este reloj?.^[5][1]
5. To be equivalent to something in number, meaning or esteem.^[5]
6. (intransitive) To have qualities that deserve esteem: ese chico vale mucho.^[5][1]
7. (intransitive) To be valid, in force; to count: este billete ya no vale.^[5][1]
8. (intransitive) Of a coin, to be current.^[5]
9. (intransitive) To be useful or fit for a purpose: esta cuerda no vale para atar el bulto.^[5][16]
10. (intransitive) To prevail over something opposed.^[5]
11. (intransitive) To serve as a defence or protection.^[5]
12. (intransitive) To have the force needed for something to stand or hold.^[5]
13. (intransitive, with por) To be worth as much as several things: su silencio vale por una respuesta.^[5][24]
14. (reflexive, with de) To make use of: se valió de un amigo para conseguirlo.^[1][16]
15. (reflexive) To manage on one's own: la abuela ya no se vale sola.^[1][16]
16. (colloquial, Mexico, Central America, Bolivia) Not to matter to someone: me vale.^[20][1]
17. (Mexico) Of a machine, to stop working.^[20]

Noun

1. Worth, merit: un hombre de mucho valer.^[25][16]

Word family

• valedero
• valedor
• valía
• valimiento
• desvalido
• valuar
• valérselas

Related words

• valencia
• válido
• valiente
• valor
• convalecer
• prevalecer
• Latin valeō
• English value

Usage notes

The infinitive is also a masculine noun, el valer “worth, merit”, already in Berceo, where criado de valer means a servant of great merit.^[14][25] Valer is irregular like salir: valgo, valga, valdré, imperative vale or val.^[2][1] Fixed phrases include valer la pena “to be worth it”, más vale tarde que nunca “better late than never” and valga lo que valiere “come what may”.^[1][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 879
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 7017
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. valer
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. valer
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. valer
7. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. valer
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. valer
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. valer
13. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 474
14. ^ a b c Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 772
15. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. valer
16. ^ a b c d e f g Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. valer
17. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 730
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 779
19. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 715
20. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. valer
21. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. valer
22. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. valer
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1069
24. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1639
25. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. valer