valor
(ˈvælə(r))
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 n. 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 n. 6.
| 1580 Lodge Sch. Abuse B j, All your obiections you make agaynst poetrye be of no valor. 1655 W. 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 tr. 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. |