varlet

English

Etymology

From Old French varlet. Compare valet.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈvɑːlət/

Noun

varlet (plural varlets)

1. (obsolete) A servant or attendant.
   • 1840, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter I, in Mercedes of Castile: Or, The Voyage to Cathay. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC, page 19:

     The varlet, or follower of the merchant, who was still a youth, though his vigorous frame and embrowned cheek denoted equally severe exercise and rude exposure, started and reddened at this free inquiry, which was enforced by a hand slapped familiarly on his knee, and such a squeeze of the leg as denoted the freedom of the camp.

   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, chapter 8, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):

     The Winchester Manorhouse has fled bodily, like a Dream of the old Night […] . House and people, royal and episcopal, lords and varlets, where are they?

2. (historical) Specifically, a youth acting as a knight's attendant at the beginning of his training for knighthood.
   • 1891, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, The White Company, New York, N.Y., Boston, Mass.: Thomas Y[oung] Crowell & Company […], →OCLC, page 138:

     [T]here was a little, sleek, fat clerk of the name of Chaucer, who was so apt at rondel, sirvente, or tonson, that no man dare give back a foot from the walls, lest he find it all set down in his rhymes and sung by every underling and varlet in the camp.

3. (archaic) A rogue or scoundrel.
   • 1574, Augustine Marlorate [i.e., Augustin Marlorat], “[Revelation 2:2]”, in Arthur Golding, transl., A Catholike Exposition vpon the Reuelation of Sainct Iohn. […], London: […] H[enry] Binneman, for L[ucas] Harison, and G[eorge] Bishop, →OCLC, folio 32, recto:

     [W]hen the worlde is fraughted with ſo manye varlettes, that it will be a long time ere a man ſhall diſcerne the faythful from the Hipocrites.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

     My lady to be called a nasty Scotch wh–re by such a varlet!—To be sure I wish I had knocked his brains out with the punchbowl.

   • 1885–1886, Henry James, chapter VIII, in The Bostonians […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 16 February 1886, →OCLC, 1st book, pages 57–58:

     He was false, cunning, vulgar, ignoble; the cheapest kind of human product […] The white, puffy mother, with the high forehead, in the corner there, looked more like a lady; but if she were one, it was all the more shame to her to have mated with such a varlet, Ransom said to himself, making use, as he did generally, of terms of opprobrium extracted from the older English literature.

4. (obsolete, card games) The jack.

Translations

servant or attendant

• Bulgarian: слуга (bg) m (sluga)
• Macedonian: слу́га m (slúga), паж m (paž)
• Russian: слуга́ (ru) m (slugá), паж (ru) m (paž)

youth acting as a knight’s attendant at the beginning of his training for knighthood

• Bulgarian: паж m (paž), щитоносец m (štitonosec)
• Dutch: schildknaap (nl), page (nl)
• Macedonian: штито́носец m (štitónosec), паж m (paž)
• Russian: оружено́сец (ru) m (oruženósec)

rogue or scoundrel

• Bulgarian: мошеник (bg) m (mošenik)
• Irish: bithiúnach m
• Macedonian: и́змамник m (ízmamnik), по́длец m (pódlec), ла́жго m (lážgo)
• Russian: негодя́й (ru) m (negodjáj)

jack

• Bulgarian: вале n (vale)
• Dutch: boer (nl)
• Macedonian: џа́ндар m (džándar)
• Russian: вале́т (ru) m (valét)

Anagrams

• retval, travel

Old French

Noun

varlet oblique singular, m (oblique plural varlez or varletz, nominative singular varlez or varletz, nominative plural varlet)

1. Alternative form of vaslet