valer

Forms

valer (first-person singular present valho, first-person singular preterite vali, past participle valido)^[1] Houaiss records uallam (1192), val, ualerem, ualla and the future valrria in the 13th century, valer in 1344 and valher in the 14th century.^[2] The medieval language also had the preterite valvi.^[3] Feijó (1734) rejects the short third person val for vale.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin valeō (“to be strong, be healthy; to be worth”), written Old Galician-Portuguese valer in the oldest texts.^[2][5][1] The /l/ between vowels, normally lost in Portuguese, was kept: Carolina Michaëlis explained it by the very frequent imperative val, as in the invocation of Holy Mary, by the forms with palatal ⟨lh⟩ (valho, valha) and by the old preterite valvi;^[3][6] Nascentes, after Leite de Vasconcelos, by the influence of the preterite.^[3][6] Nascentes's shorter dictionary calls the verb learned.^[7]

The same Latin verb is Galician valer, Spanish valer, Catalan valer, French valoir and Italian valere.^[8][1][9]

The Latin verb is from *walēō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wl̥h₁éh₁yeti, a stative of *h₂welh₁- (“to rule, be strong”).^[1][10] Its relatives include Old Irish flaith (“sovereignty”) and Old High German waltan (“to rule”).^[11][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is uallam in 1192, which he takes from Machado.^[2] In the 13th-century cantigas the main sense is “to help, protect”, above all in invocations: Santa Maria val! “Holy Mary, help!”, se Deus me valha “so help me God”.^[3][12] The cantigas also use it for “to be worth, deserve” and “to be of use”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Galician-Portuguese also used the infinitive as a noun, valer “worth”.^[13][3] Barbosa (1611) defines the verb as having worth, power or authority, and Bluteau (1712–1728) as having a quality that deserves a given price.^[14][15] Morais (1789) lists “to be useful, to help, protect”, “to have merit” and “to cost”, quoting Barros on a hen that valia hum cruzado “cost a cruzado”.^[16]

Today the sense “to be worth, to cost” is the main one, beside “to be valid”, “to deserve” and the reflexive valer-se de “to make use of”.^[2][17][1] The old sense “to help” survives in valha-me Deus.^[3] Fixed phrases are valer a pena “to be worth the trouble” and a valer “in earnest”.^[18][19]

Timeline

• 1192 – Houaiss's first record, spelt uallam, after Machado.^[2]
• 1200s – val, valha and valrria in the cantigas.^[2][3]
• 1344 – first record of the spelling valer.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses it with Latin valeo and polleo.^[20]
• 1611 – Barbosa: “to have worth, power or authority”.^[14]
• 1734 – Feijó rejects val for vale.^[4]
• 1789 – Morais lists “to help”, “to have merit” and “to cost”.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be worth; to have a certain value or price; to cost: Este relógio vale mil euros.^[2][17][1]
2. To be equal in value to; to be equivalent to.^[2][18]
3. To deserve, to be worthy of.^[2][17]
4. To be valid; to count, have force: Esse bilhete já não vale.^[2][21][1]
5. To be of use; to serve.^[2][17]
6. To help, come to the aid of.^[17][22]
7. To bring (a consequence) on someone; to earn: A brincadeira valeu-lhe um castigo.^[18][1]
8. (reflexive, with de) To make use of, avail oneself of.^[19][1]

Word family

• avaliar
• valia
• desvalia
• desvalido
• valedor
• vale
• valhacouto

Related words

• valente
• valor
• válido
• inválido
• Latin valeo
• Spanish valer

Usage notes

Valer a pena means “to be worth the effort”, and a valer “for real, in earnest”.^[18][19] The noun vale “voucher, IOU” is the third person of the verb used as a noun.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. valer
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. valer
4. ^ a b Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. valer
5. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. valer
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 519
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. valer
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. valere
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. valoir
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, p. s.v. valeō
12. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. valer1
13. ^ Universo Cantigas: Glosario da poesía medieval profana galego-portuguesa, A Coruña: Instituto da Lingua e Literatura (ILLA), Universidade da Coruña, https://www.universocantigas.gal, p. s.v. valer2
14. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. valer
15. ^ Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. valer
16. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 507
17. ^ a b c d e Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. valer
18. ^ a b c d Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. valer
19. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9372
20. ^ Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. valer
21. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. valer
22. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. valer