valet
/ˈvæleɪ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.17 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A man's personal male attendant, responsible for his clothes and appearance.
noun
A hotel employee performing such duties for guests.
noun
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.
noun
A wooden stand on which to hold clothes and accessories in preparation for dressing.
noun
A kind of goad or stick with an iron point.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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!"
- "[…] the red-haired boy who had valeted me in the morning appeared in a plain suit of black."
- "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.”"
- "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.”"
- "“‘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.”"
Etymology
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.
Origin
- Source language: Old French
Word Breakdown
- Root: vaslet, *vassellittus, vassallus, *wassos, *wastos
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈvæleɪ/
- British English: /ˈvæleɪ/
Usage
- American usage
- Transitive verb
- British usage