Valet

A valet in 19th century India.

Valet and Varlet are terms for male servants.

Etymology

In English, valet "personal man-servant" is recorded since 1567, derived from the French valet (the t being silent), an Old French variant of vaslet "man's servant," originally "squire, young man," assumed to be from Gallo-Romance *vassellittus "young nobleman, squire, page," diminutive of Medieval Latin vassallus, from vassus "servant", itself from an Old Celtic root wasso- "young man, squire" (cognate of Welsh gwas "youth, servant," Breton goaz "servant, vassal, man," Irish foss "servant"). See yeoman possibly derived from yonge man.

The modern use is usually short for the valet de chambre (French for 'chamber valet') described in the following section. In English, the word can be pronounced either with the 't' pronounced (rhyming with pallet), or with a silent 't'.

Domestic valet

A valet or gentleman's gentleman is a gentleman's male servant. The valet performs personal services such as maintaining his employer's clothes, running his bath and perhaps (especially in the past) shaving his employer. In a great house the master of the house had his own valet, in the grandest the same would go for other adult members of the employing family (e.g. master's sons), at a court even minor princes and high officials may be assigned one, but in a smaller household the butler (the majordomo in charge of the household staff) might have to double as his employer's valet. In a bachelor's household the valet might perform light housekeeping duties as well. Valets, like butlers and most specialized domestic staff, have become relatively rare, and a more common — though still infrequent — arrangement is the general servant performing combined roles.

Traditionally a valet did much more than merely lay out clothes and take care of personal items. He was also responsible for making travel arrangements, dealing with any bills and handling all money matters concerning his master or his master's household.

Famous fictional valets

See also, List of fictional butlers

• Reginald Jeeves, created by P.G. Wodehouse in the Jeeves and Wooster series; Jeeves is considered the "personification of the perfect valet" since 1930, also the name of an internet search engine.
• Mervyn Bunter, created by Dorothy L. Sayers in the Lord Peter Wimsey series
• Giles French, from the TV series Family Affair (later functioned as the family butler)
• Hobson (Sir John Gielgud), from the comedy film Arthur (1981).
• Kato, valet and sidekick to Britt Reid a.k.a. The Green Hornet.
• Rochester Van Jones, played on radio and television by Eddie Anderson on the Jack Benny Show.
• Passepartout in the 1872 novel Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne.
• George, created by Agatha Christie in the Hercule Poirot novels.
• Figaro, the Count of Almaviva's valet from Beaumarchais' play The Marriage of Figaro.
• Spicer Lovejoy (David Warner), valet and bodyguard to Caledon Hockley in the film Titanic (1997)
• La Fleche, Cleante's valet in "the Miser"
• Mr. Probert (Derek Jacobi), valet to Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon), and Robert Parks (Clive Owen), valet to Lord Stockbridge (Charles Dance), in the 2001 film Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman.

Other valets

Valet is also used for people performing specific services:

• hotel valet — an employee who performs personal services for guests.
• parking valet—a service employee who parks cars for guests, only from 1960.
• car valet — an employee who is paid to clean people's cars professionally.
• valet — a professional wrestling term for a person who accompanies a wrestler to the ring - originally a beefy man but now usually a busty woman.

Valet can also be an object:

• clothes valet — an implement on which clothes may be hung.

Other forms of valet-like personnel include:

• Batman
• Bedder

In playing cards, "Valet" is another name for a Jack.

Varlet

While in French this word remained restricted to the feudal use for a (knight's) squire, in modern English it came to be used for the various other male servants originally called va(r)let other then the gentleman's gentleman, when in livery usually called lackey, such as the valet de pied ('foot varlet', compare footman) . In archaic English, varlet also could mean an unprincipled person; a rogue.

Sources

(incomplete)

• EtymologyOnLine
• Nouveau Petit Larousse Illustré (in French, 1952)

See also

• Valet boy