Also 6–7 vallet (6 -ett, Sc. wallett), 7 valett; 8 Sc. vallie. [a. F. valet, OF. valet, vallet, vaslet, prob. related to VASSAL. Cf. VADELECT, VALECT, and VARLET.]
1. A man-servant performing duties chiefly relating to the person of his master; a gentleman’s personal attendant.
1567. Fenton, Trag. Disc., i. (1898), I. 34. Not worthy anye waye to be vallet to the worste of us.
1587. Reg. Privy Council Scot., IV. 181. Ane of the vallettis of the Kingis Majesteis chalmer.
1614. Selden, Titles Honor, 333. At this day, a Diener, seruant or vallet is both in Alemanique and Belgique called Ein Knecht.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. ii. 651. Before the Dame, and round about, March’d Whiflers, and Staffiers on foot, With Lacquies, Grooms, Valets, and Pages.
1691. Satyr agst. French, 15. That Gentleman does much himself forget, Who in his Chamber has not French Vallet. Ibid., 25. From hence they’d fly;… And leave not one poor Vallet here behind.
1719. Hamilton, Ep. to Ramsay, II. viii. I wad nae care to be thy vallie, Or thy recorder.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 102. We have taken an occasional valet, whom I intend hereafter to hire as my own servant.
a. 1845. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. III. Knight & Lady. Thompson, the Valet, Look’d gravely at Sally.
1856. Sir B. Brodie, Psychol. Inq., I. vi. 218. The rich man’s valet studies his master’s temper and caprices.
1885. Athenæum, 26 Sept., 393/2. The chief characters in his plays are heavy fathers and confidential valets.
fig. 1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. I. i. Which would not end till ‘France’ (La France, as she named her royal valet) finally mustered heart to see Choiseul.
2. Mil. A footman acting as attendant or servant to a horseman. rare. (Cf. VARLET 1 b.)
1591. Garrard’s Art Warre, 269. There be … two quarters for horsemen, the which their vallets are to entrench with a smal trench.
1832. trans. Sismondi’s Ital. Rep., xiii. 28. They became terror-struck when they perceived that the French caused dismounted horsemen to be put to death by their valets.
3. a. Appositive, as valet-courier, harquebusier, maid, -musician.
1598. Dallington, Meth. Trav., K 4. [A horseman] who shall quitte his horse, and serue on foot, prouided that hee haue with him a vallet Harquebusier.
1845. E. Holmes, Life Mozart, 5. The Archbishop of Saltzburg … entertained him in the capacity of valet-musician.
1867. Carlyle, Remin. (1881), II. 32. The clever old valet maid that waited on them.
1897. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ In Kedar’s Tents, xxii. 243. A valet-courier of taciturn habit.
b. Attributive, as valet judgment, world.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., I. iv. It is to the sham-hero that … the valet world belongs. Ibid. (1855), Misc. (1857), IV. 354. Sublime to the valet judgment.
Hence Valetage, the service rendered by a valet; Valethood, the state or condition of being a valet; Valetism, the character or spirit of a valet.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., II. ix. The fruit of long ages of confirmed Valethood;… cloth-worship and quack-worship.
1871. W. Maurice, in Once a Week, VIII. Christmas, 58–9. He imagined that, for the first time in his life, his young master was going to employ him in the higher walks of valetage, and quickly took the hint.
1875. Helps, Soc. Press., xiii. 183. To far other persons besides the valet by reason of his valetism, does the hero often cease to be a hero.
1890. Sat. Rev., 17 May, 585/2. The vassalage or the valetage is prompted by an honest personal devotion, like that of Tom Steele to O’Connell.
