valere

Forms

valere (first-person singular present vàlgo, first-person singular past historic vàlsi, past participle vàlso, first-person singular future varrò, auxiliary èssere or (transitive) avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin valēre (“to be strong; to be worth”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb first meant “to be strong”, and, of coins, “to have a value”, and then “to be well”.^[2] The word is pan-Romance except for Romanian: French valoir, Occitan valer, Catalan valdre, Spanish valer, Portuguese valer, Sardinian balere and Romansh valair.^[3][5][6]

According to de Vaan, the Latin verb continues Proto-Italic *walē- and a stative Proto-Indo-European *h₂ulh₁-eh₁- (“to be strong”).^[7] The root also gave words for ruling: Old Irish flaith (“sovereignty”), Lithuanian valdýti (“to govern”), Old Church Slavonic власть (vlastĭ, “power”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌻𐌳𐌰𐌽 (waldan, “to rule”) and Old High German waltan (“to rule”).^[3][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the verb to 1219, in the sense “to count, to hold good”.^[4] In the Sicilian poets it means “to be of worth”: Giacomo da Lentini strives ch'io cotanto valesse (“that I might be worth so much”) in the eyes of his lady.^[9] DELI's earliest dated sense is “to have power, authority” in Dante's Paradiso (1300–1313): Donna, se' tanto grande e tanto vali (“Lady, you are so great and have such power”).^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio uses valere for people, “to be able, capable”, and for things, “to cost, to have a price” (1348–1353).^[2] The legal sense “to be valid, to have effect” is recorded in the Calimala merchants' statute of 1332–1337, and the sense “to be equal or comparable to” in Marco Polo.^[2] Paolo Segneri (1673) uses it for “to mean, to correspond to”, the sense of vale a dire “that is to say”.^[2][5] The pronominal valersi di “to make use of” is modern (1891), while an older valersene meant “to take revenge” (Machiavelli, 1518).^[2]

The infinitive was used as a noun, il valere, for value or price: in Boccaccio a man is promised il valere of much more than he has lost.^[11] The verb's family carries the same senses: valore “worth, valour”, a key word of Dante's, valente “able”, and valuta “value”, later “currency”, from the old past participle valuto.^[2][3] Valere un Perù, “to be worth a fortune”, follows French c'est un Pérou (1688).^[2]

Timeline

• 1219 – GRADIT's date for the verb.^[4]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses valere for “to have power”.^[2]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses the noun valore.^[2]
• 1332–1337 – The Calimala statute uses it for “to be valid”.^[2]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for “to cost” and “to be capable”.^[2]
• 1518 – Machiavelli's Mandragola has valersene “to take revenge”.^[2]
• 1673 – Paolo Segneri uses it for “to mean”.^[2]
• 1891 – Valersi “to make use of” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To have power, authority or influence, to count: In questa famiglia la mia opinione non vale niente.^[4][12][13]
2. Of a person: to be capable, to be good at something: È un'insegnante che vale molto.^[12][13][10]
3. To be valid, to hold good, to apply: Il biglietto vale per due corse.^[4][12][13]
4. To be of use, to avail: Le sue proteste non sono valse a nulla.^[4][13]
5. To be worth, to have a certain price or value: Quell'anello vale una fortuna.^[4][13][1]
6. To be equal to, to mean, as in vale a dire “that is to say”.^[4][1]
7. In games, to count towards the score: in questo gioco il fante vale due punti.^[4][12]
8. (pronominal, valersi di) To make use of: Si è valso dell'aiuto di un esperto.^[12][14]

Word family

• valore
• valente
• valentia
• valentuomo
• valenza
• valevole
• valuta
• valutare
• valsente
• avvalersi
• rivalersi
• rivalsa
• invalere

Related words

• vaglia
• valersi
• valido

Usage notes

Valere takes essere as its auxiliary (è valso la pena).^[1][10] Common phrases include valere la pena “to be worth the trouble”, farsi valere “to assert oneself”, tanto vale “one might as well”, and the children's protest non vale! “that's not fair!”.^[4][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3979
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana