valente

Forms

valente m or f by sense (plural valenti, superlative valentissimo)^[1] Old and popular forms include Old Italian valentre, Old Italian valento and Old Italian vagliente.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin valēns (“strong”), the present participle of valeō (“to be strong, healthy”),^[1][5] and in Italian it is the present participle of valere, used as an adjective.^[6][7][8] DEI compares French vaillant.^[5] The popular valentre was modelled on the adverb valentremente, from Latin valenter (“strongly”), or on the noun valentria.^[5]

De Vaan traces valeō to Proto-Indo-European *h₂ulh₁-eh₁- (“to be strong”), and Nocentini names the cognates with the sense “to have power, to rule”: Lithuanian valdýti (“to govern”), Old Irish flaith (“sovereignty”) and Old High German waltan (“to rule”).^[9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini, Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti date the word to the 13th century.^[6][7][8] The GDLI's first quotation is from the poems of Giacomo da Lentini, who addresses a donna valente, a worthy lady of courtly love.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the early poets valente praised the virtues, mostly moral, that made a man or woman worthy, and also the worth that made one deserving of courtly love;^[4][8] Dante writes E simil face in donna omo valente (“and a worthy man does the same in a woman”).^[4][8] Boccaccio used it for people who excel in their work, a sense DELI dates to 1348–1353 and that is the main one today.^[10][11] The senses “brave” and “wise, virtuous” are now archaic.^[12][2]

Chemistry and linguistics use it as the second part of adjectives such as monovalente and bivalente, “having a valency of one, two”.^[8][2]

Timeline

• 13th century – First record of valente.^[6][7]
• 13th century – Valentia “valour” in the Novellino.^[5]
• 14th century – Giovanni Villani writes valentre.^[5]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for skill in a profession.^[10]
• 1348–1353 – Valentuomo is recorded.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Very skilled or capable in an art, profession or activity: un valente restauratore.^[12][7][8]
2. (archaic) Valiant, brave.^[12][13][1]
3. (archaic) Wise, virtuous.^[12][7][1]
4. (dated, of a remedy) Effective.^[3][14]
5. (chemistry, linguistics) As the second element of compounds: having a given valency.^[8][13][1]

Word family

• valentia
• valentemente
• valentuomo
• valenteria
• valsente
• monovalente
• bivalente
• trivalente
• polivalente
• ambivalente

Related words

• valere
• valenza
• valore
• Latin valēns

Usage notes

Valent'uomo is also written as one word, valentuomo.^[12][3] The adverb is valentemente “bravely; skilfully”.^[3][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
3. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3979
6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli