valorous

English

Alternative forms

• valourous

Etymology

From Old French valeureux.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈvælərəs/

Adjective

valorous (comparative more valorous, superlative most valorous)

1. Having or displaying valour.
   • c. 1490, William Caxton (translator), The Boke of Eneydos, Westminster, Preface,^[1]

     this present booke compyled by virgyle ryght subtyl and Ingenyous oratour & poete Intytuled Eneydos hath be translated oute of latyn in to comyn langage In whiche may alle valyaunt prynces and other nobles see many valorous fayttes of armes.

   • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:

     […] he esteems himself happy that he hath fallen into the hands of one, as he thinks, the most brave, valorous, and thrice-worthy signieur of England.

   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     […] I shall be at York—at the head of my daring and valorous fellows, as ready to support any bold design as thy policy can be to form one.

   • 1929 May–October, Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms, 1st British edition, London: Jonathan Cape […], published 1929, →OCLC, book I, page 75:

     He held up the glass. ‘To your valorous wounds. To the silver medal. […] ’

   • 2004, Andrea Levy, chapter 12, in Small Island, London: Review, page 139:

     There are many valorous stories told of her, which enthral grown men as well as children.

   • 2025 May 8, David Wallace-Wells, “Bill Gates Explains His Plans to Close the Gates Foundation in 2045”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

     For all its pragmatic public-health spade work, the foundation has also served as a kind of valorous abstraction — the seeming embodiment of “the Golden Rule,” in a phrase that Bill Gates likes to use, and the face of an increasingly anachronistic era of elite optimism.

Synonyms

• valiant

Derived terms

• valorously

Translations

brave — see brave

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “valorous”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.