vaillant

Forms

vaillant (feminine vaillante, masculine plural vaillants, feminine plural vaillantes)^[1] Old French vailant, vaillant.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman spellings include vaillaunt and vailaunt.^[4]

Etymology

It is from French valoir (“to be worth”): the old present participle of that verb, built on the stem ⟨vaill-⟩ kept by the subjunctive; the modern participle is valant.^{[5][2][6][1][7]} The verb comes from Latin valeō (“to be in good health, be strong”), whence “to be worth”.^[8][1] For the noun sense “value”, the TLFi compares Medieval Latin valēns (“price, value”) used as a noun.^[2]

Littré compares Spanish valiente.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050) it means “precious, of great worth”, of a thing, and “of high merit”, of a person, as in a wife who is vailante ed honurede “worthy and honoured”.^[2][5][9]

Semantic evolution

From “worth much” the adjective soon came to mean “brave, courageous”: the Chanson de Roland already speaks of franc chevaler vaillant and uses vaillanz as a noun for brave men.^[2][5] The sense “having the value of” gave the noun vaillant “value, equivalent” (Wace, 1160–1174) and then “one's goods, capital” (late 13th century), now obsolete, and the phrase n'avoir pas un sou vaillant “to own nothing” (1690, Furetière).^[2][5] Jacques Cœur's motto à cœur vaillant rien d'impossible (a proverb recorded about 1464) is still quoted and gave its name to a Catholic children's movement.^[2][5]

In the sense “brave” the word is now literary, usually replaced by courageux or brave.^[5] Two other senses developed late: “hard-working, energetic” (Olivier de Serres, 1600, then from 1766), still alive regionally, and “robust, in good health” (Sorel, 1626), rare before the 19th century and now used of a sick or elderly person who can still get about.^[2][5] In Quebec and Acadia it means “hard-working”, and in Louisiana “nice” or “healthy”.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – Vailant “precious, worthy” appears in the Vie de saint Alexis.^[2]
• c. 1100 – The Chanson de Roland uses it for “brave”, also as a noun.^[2][5]
• 1160–1174 – Wace uses vaillant as a noun meaning “value, equivalent”.^[2]
• late 13th century – The noun means “one's goods, capital”.^[2][5]
• c. 1464 – The proverb a ceur vaillant rien impossible is recorded.^[2]
• 1600 – Olivier de Serres uses it for “hard-working”.^[2][5]
• 1626 – Sorel uses it for “robust, in good health”.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records n'avoir pas un sol vaillant.^[2][5]
• 1765 – The Encyclopédie has cheval vaillant, a spirited horse.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary) brave, valiant, courageous in the face of danger.^[10][2]
2. hard-working, full of energy and ready to face difficulties: une ouvrière vaillante.^[10][2]
3. In good health, vigorous, often in the negative: après sa grippe, il n'est pas encore bien vaillant.^[10]
4. N'avoir pas un sou vaillant: to be penniless.^[10][5]
5. (Quebec, Acadia) Hard-working.^[1]
6. (Louisiana) Nice, kind.^[1]

Noun

1. (obsolete) A brave man.^[5][2]
2. (obsolete) One's possessions or capital.^[5][2]

Word family

• vaillamment
• vaillance

Related words

• valoir
• valant
• Latin valeō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 131a
8. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert