different between valet vs vassal

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French valet, from Old French vaslet, from *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).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?væle?/, /?væl?t/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?væle?/, /væ?le?/, /?væl?t/
• Rhymes: -æl?t, -æle?, -e?

Noun

valet (plural valets)

1. A man's personal male attendant, responsible for his clothes and appearance.
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

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.

Synonyms

• (personal attendant): butler (proscribed), gentleman's gentleman

Translations

References

• “valet”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• “valet” in the Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Verb

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, London: Smith, Elder & Co., Volume I, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 163,^[1]

     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, Marazan, London: Cassell, Chapter Seven,^[2]

     […] the red-haired boy who had valeted me in the morning appeared in a plain suit of black.

2. (transitive, chiefly Britain, Ireland) To clean and service (a car), as a valet does.
   • 2017, 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,” The Irish Sun, 7 March, 2017,^[3]

     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, Jay Weston, “One of the Most Eligible Bachelors in L.A. Has 55 Ferraris.. and Takes Me for a Drive in One!” The Huffington Post, 30 May, 2012,^[4]

     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, Rosalie R. Radomsky, “Emma Ludbrook and Tom Windish: Their First Date Was a Big Production,” The New York Times, 11 February, 2017,^[5]

     “‘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.”

Further reading

• Valet in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• Valet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Estonian

Noun

valet

1. partitive singular of vale

French

Etymology

From Old French vaslet, from *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).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /va.l?/

Noun

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

Descendants

• Turkish: vale

See also

Further reading

• “valet” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• levât

Latin

Verb

valet

1. third-person singular present active indicative of vale?

Middle French

Etymology

Old French vaslet.

Noun

valet m (plural valets)

1. manservant; (male) attendant

Descendants

• French: valet

Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from French valet.

Noun

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

• valet d'fèrme (“farmhand”)

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

valet n

1. singular definite of val

Portuguese

Etymology

From French valet

Noun

valet m, f (plural valets)

1. valet (a person employed to park cars)

Romanian

Etymology

From French valet.

Noun

valet m (plural vale?i)

1. valet

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French valet.

Noun

valet m (plural valets)

1. (card games) jack, knave

Swedish

Noun

valet

1. definite singular of val

Anagrams

• levat, velat

English

Alternative forms

• vasal (rare)

Etymology

From Middle English vassal, from Old French vassal, from Medieval 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

• IPA^(key): /?væs?l/
• Rhymes: -æs?l

Noun

vassal (plural vassals)

1. (historical) The grantee of a fief, feud, or fee; one who keeps land of a superior, and who vows fidelity and homage to him, normally a lord of a manor; a feudatory; a feudal tenant.
2. A subordinate

   Synonyms: subject, dependant, servant, slave

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

vassal (not comparable)

1. Resembling a vassal; slavish; servile.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV, scene iii

     Did they, quoth you? / Who sees the heavenly Rosaline / That, like a rude and savage man of Inde / At the first opening of the gorgeous east / Bows not his vassal head and strucken blind / Kisses the base ground with obedient breast?

Translations

Verb

vassal (third-person singular simple present vassals, present participle vassalling, simple past and past participle vassalled)

1. (transitive) To treat as a vassal or to reduce to the position of a vassal; to subject to control; to enslave.
2. (transitive) To subordinate to someone or something.

Translations

Anagrams

• Salvas, slavas, vasals

French

Etymology

From Old French vassal, from Medieval 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

• IPA^(key): /va.sal/

Adjective

vassal (feminine singular vassale, masculine plural vassaux, feminine plural vassales)

1. vassal

Noun

vassal m (plural vassaux, feminine vassale)

1. a vassal

Descendants

• ? Danish: vasal
• ? Russian: ??????? (vassál) (see there for further descendants)

Further reading

• “vassal” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• valsas

Hungarian

Etymology

vas +? -val

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?v????l]
• Hyphenation: vas?sal

Noun

vassal

1. instrumental singular of vas

Derived terms

• t?zzel-vassal

Old French

Noun

vassal m (oblique plural vassaus or vassax or vassals, nominative singular vassaus or vassax or vassals, nominative plural vassal)

1. vassal

Descendants

• English: vassal (rare)
• French: vassal
• Norman: vassa (Jersey)