Also 6–7 vallor, 6 valore, 7 Sc. walor. [var. of VALOUR by assimilation to, or direct adoption of, med.L. valor.]
† 1. The amount in money, etc., that a thing is worth; = VALUE sb. 2. Obs.
1496–7. Plumpton Corr. (Camden), 127. If hir ladyship wold send by him a token to my master, yt shall avale hir another of xx tymes the valor.
1526. Linc. Wills (1914), I. 179. Yerely spendyng the valore off the sayd v Roode [of land] att my forsayd yereday.
a. 1577. Sir T. Smith, Commw. Eng. (1609), 89. Thou hast stoln with force and armes an horse … to such a valor.
1676. Coles, Valor of Marriage. [See VALOUR 3 d.]
transf. c. 1560. A. Scott, Poems (S.T.S.), xxvii. 26. Will scho absent, Hyne sall I went, And at als littill valor set hir.
† b. In the phr. of (great, etc.) valor. Obs.
1467. Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.), 174. Ȝe have … a lytel stoffe of myne for my howesold wesche [= which] is of no grete valor.
1545. in I. S. Leadam, Sel. Cases Crt. Requests (Selden Soc.), 84. What valor they were of this deponent knoweth nott.
† c. The monetary value of (a specified sum).
1542. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), VI. 156. The yerlie valor of xl s.
a. 1548. in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. III. II. 65. A Prebend in York … of the yerly valor of xliiij. marks.
1602. Shetland Law Rep., in Scotsman (1886), 29 Jan., 7/1. Gif he beis apprehendit with the walor of an uris thift.
d. Eccl. An assessment-value set upon Church property; a list of these values.
1800. Lysons, Environs London Suppl., 245. In the old valors this rectory was rated at 70 marks.
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr., XIV. i. (1864), VI. 18, note. The Valor of pope Nicholas was framed by those who wished … to … lighten their taxation.
2. † a. Intrinsic worth or merit; = VALUE sb. 6.
1580. Lodge, Sch. Abuse, B j. All your obiections you make agaynst poetrye be of no valor.
1655. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm. (1669), 281/1. Why! but because it hath not God to put a valor on it.
b. Power, import, significance.
1676. Collins, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1841), II. 12. I have set down two valors of x to every equation.
1691. Ray, Coll. Words, Acc. Errors Alph. Now I come to shew that our alphabet is faulty as to the powers or valors attributed to some letters.
1808. Jebb, Corr. (1834), I. 469. If I may make an English word to express the valor of the Greek word.
3. Courage, bravery; = VALOUR 1 c. Now chiefly U.S.
1586. Hoby, Pol. Disc. Truth, xi. 36. They haue so often beene subdued by the valor of the French.
1605. 1st Part Jeronimo, III. i. Our courages are new borne, our vallors bred.
1674. trans. Scheffer’s Lapland, Pref. Where so much passive valor is necessary we may dispense with the want of active.
1757. W. Wilkie, Epigoniad, Pref. p. xli. Besides, I must have transferred, to Sthenelus, the valor, firmness, and address of Ulysses.
1782. Highmore, Ramble Coast Sussex (1873), 19. In the days of chivalry, when the soul of valor animated every thought.
1828. Webster, Worthy,… a man of valor.
1874. Bancroft, Footpr. Time, i. The period of rude and restless valor among the Greeks.
