valiance
(ˈvæljəns)
Forms: 5 vailliaunce, vaylliaunce, 5–6 valiaunce, -yaunce, 6 -eaunce, 6–7, 9 valiance.
[a. AF. valiance (1304), or ad. OF. vaillance (AF. vayllaunce), f. valiant, vaillant: see valiant a.]
1. Bravery, valour; = valiancy 1.
Very common in the 16th c.; now chiefly as a literary archaism.
| 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 53 The mekle valiaunce of schir Cipro consul of Rome. 1475 Bk. Noblesse 55 For his gret trouthe, vailliaunce, and manhod..king Pirrus..offred to gyve hym the .iiij{supt}{suph} part of his roiaume. 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 126 These fooles them boast of deedes of valiaunce And worthy actes done by them in battayle. 1581 A. Hall Iliad iii. 50 When I was yong, and valiance had, and prowess. 1623 Bingham Xenophon 44 Let vs not expect, that other come and encourage vs to be braue and resolute, but let vs begin to excite other to valiance. |
| 1807 G. Chalmers Caledonia I. iii. vii. 387 His son exerted many acts of forward valiance. 1841 Thackeray Drum i. v, In spite of our valiance, The victory lay with Malbrook. 1894 Academy 16 June 491/3 Equal to them in business capacity, superior in persevering energy, in valiance of heart and true courage. |
2. A valiant act or deed; a feat of valour or bravery. Now
arch.| 1470–85 Malory Arthur v. viii. 173 Grete valyaunces, prowesses, and appertyces of werre were that day shewed. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. i. vii. 17 By cause he had founde so many valyaunces in the romayns. 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. xix. (Arb.) 57 Places of assembly, where the company shalbe desirous to heare of old aduentures and valiaunces of noble knights in times past. |
| 1879 Meredith Egoist I. ii. 21 Our cavalier's is the poetic leg, a portent, a valiance. |