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valet

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Valet and válet

English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Middle French valet, from Old French vaslet, from Medieval Latin *vassellittus, diminutive of Late Latin vassallus (“manservant, domestic, retainer”), from vassus (“servant”), from Gaulish *wassos (“young man, squire”), from Proto-Celtic *wastos (“servant”) (compare Old Irish foss and Welsh gwas). Doublet of varlet.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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valet (plural valets)

  1. A man's personal male attendant, responsible for his clothes and appearance.
    Synonyms: (proscribed) butler, gentleman's gentleman
    Coordinate term: lady's maid
  2. A hotel employee performing such duties for guests.
  3. (professional wrestling) A female performer in professional wrestling, acting as either a manager or personal chaperone; often used to attract and titillate male members of the audience.
  4. A female chaperone who accompanies a man, and is usually not married to him.
  5. (US) A person employed to clean or park cars.
    Synonym: parking attendant
    • 2017 March 7, Stephen Maguire, “Hero Irish dad reveals he had to tell car valet he ‘wasn’t up to anything illegal’ after wife gave birth on back seat on Donegal road”, in The Irish Sun‎[1], archived from the original on 6 December 2021:
      A HEROIC dad who helped deliver his new-born baby in the back of his car had to explain to his car valet that he wasn't involved in illegal crime.
  6. A person employed to assist the jockey and trainer at a racecourse.
  7. A wooden stand on which to hold clothes and accessories in preparation for dressing.
  8. A kind of goad or stick with an iron point.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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valet (third-person singular simple present valets, present participle valeting, simple past and past participle valeted)

  1. (transitive) To serve (someone) as a valet.
    • 1866, Wilkie Collins, Armadale‎[2], London: Smith, Elder & Co., Volume I, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 163:
      You can valet me, can you? Bother valeting me! I like to put on my own clothes, and brush them, too, when they are on; and if I only knew how to black my own boots, by George I should like to do it!
    • 1926, Neville Shute, chapter 7, in Marazan‎[3], London: Cassell:
      […] the red-haired boy who had valeted me in the morning appeared in a plain suit of black.
  2. (transitive, chiefly UK, Ireland) To clean and service (a car), as a valet does.
    • 2017 March 7, Stephen Maguire, “Hero Irish dad reveals he had to tell car valet he ‘wasn’t up to anything illegal’ after wife gave birth on back seat on Donegal road”, in The Irish Sun‎[4], archived from the original on 6 December 2021:
      He revealed: “We had been through a lot and I decided the car needed to be cleaned out after Georgina had to deliver the baby in the car.
      “You can imagine the scene when I left the car in for valeting. I got some funny looks and I had to explain to the guy that I wasn’t up to anything illegal because it did look a bit like a crime scene.”
  3. (transitive, US) To leave (a car) with a valet to park it.
    • 2012 May 30, Jay Weston, “One of the Most Eligible Bachelors in L.A. Has 55 Ferraris.. and Takes Me for a Drive in One!”, in The Huffington Post‎[5], archived from the original on 13 December 2025:
      I asked Giacomo if he ever valeted his car, and he twisted his face into a grimace as he replied, “Rarely, but I have done it. Nervous time.”
    • 2017 February 11, Rosalie R. Radomsky, “Emma Ludbrook and Tom Windish: Their First Date Was a Big Production”, in The New York Times‎[6], archived from the original on 26 September 2020:
      “‘Is this a date?’” Ms. Ludbrook recalled thinking during dinner. “I had valeted my car, and he hadn’t. He said, ‘Bye,’ and went to his car. Clearly this was not a date.”

References

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Further reading

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Crimean Tatar

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Russian валет (valet).

Noun

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valet

  1. (card games) jack

Declension

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Declension of valet
singular plural
nominative valet valetler
genitive valetniñ valetlerniñ
dative valetke valetlerge
accusative valetni valetlerni
locative valette valetlerde
ablative valetten valetlerden

References

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Estonian

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Noun

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valet

  1. partitive singular of vale

French

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Etymology

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Inherited from Old French vaslet, from Medieval Latin *vassellittus, diminutive of Late Latin vassallus (“manservant, domestic, retainer”), from Latin vassus (“servant”), from Gaulish *wassos (“young man, squire”), from Proto-Celtic *wastos (“servant”) (compare Old Irish foss and Welsh gwas).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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valet m (plural valets)

  1. (historical) a male attendant of a knight or a lord
  2. (historical) officer belonging to the king's house or a princely house, also valet de chambre
  3. a male servant, a footman
  4. a wooden stand on which to hold clothes and accessories in preparation for dressing, also valet de nuit
  5. (card games) jack
  6. (especially in the form valet de menuisier) a holdfast (a hooked tool to hold a workpiece down to a workbench)

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • → Bulgarian: вале́ (valé)
  • → Greek: βαλές (valés)
  • → Portuguese: valete
  • → Russian: вале́т (valét)
  • → Turkish: vale

See also

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Playing cards in French · cartes à jouer (layout · text)
as deux trois quatre cinq six sept
huit neuf dix valet dame roi joker

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Latin

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Verb

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valet

  1. third-person singular present active indicative of valeō

Middle French

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Etymology

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Old French vaslet.

Noun

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valet m (plural valets)

  1. manservant; (male) attendant

Descendants

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Norman

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French valet.

Noun

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valet m (plural valets)

  1. (Jersey) This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
  2. (Jersey, card games) jack

Derived terms

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Norwegian Nynorsk

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Noun

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valet n

  1. definite singular of val

Portuguese

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Verify A user has added this entry to requests for verification(+)
If it cannot be verified that this term meets our attestation criteria, it will be deleted. Feel free to edit this entry as normal, but do not remove {{rfv}} until the request has been resolved.

Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from French valet.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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valet m or f by sense (plural valets)

  1. valet (a person employed to park cars)

Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French valet.

Noun

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valet m (plural valeți)

  1. valet

Declension

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singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative valet valetul valeți valeții
genitive-dative valet valetului valeți valeților
vocative valetule valeților

Spanish

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French valet.

Noun

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valet m (plural valets)

  1. (card games) jack, knave

Further reading

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Swedish

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Noun

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valet

  1. definite singular of val

Anagrams

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