Valais

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A canton in southwestern Switzerland, centred on the upper Rhône valley and bordering France and Italy
2. The Swiss canton in the high Alpine region of southwestern Switzerland, drained by the upper course of the Rhône River
3. A mountainous Swiss canton in the southwest of the country, lying along the upper Rhône and known for its alpine scenery

Etymology: Valais is the French name for a Swiss canton that the German-speaking population calls Wallis, and English took the word straight from French. Its roots lie in the Latin "Vallensis", meaning "of the valley" or "of the Valais", a name tied to the deep Rhône valley that runs through the canton. The canton is also the source of its own name in the shorter form "Vallis", the Latin word for valley, which gives the name a plain geographic meaning: a place defined by its valley. The name is a useful reminder that Swiss place names often exist in two languages at once. English speakers meeting the canton in travel writing or on a map will usually see the French spelling, while the German name shows the same root in a different shape. The English word is therefore a borrowing of the French form rather than a native English coinage, and its meaning has never shifted from the original geographic sense.