Valed

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Archaic past tense of vail, meaning lowered or yielded, as when someone doffed a hat or bowed in deference
2. Lowered something downward or gave way in submission, a formal old-fashioned sense of bowing or yielding to another
3. Past form of an archaic verb meaning to lower or to yield, typically a gesture of respect or surrender to a superior

Etymology: "Valed" is the past tense of "vale," a verb meaning to lower or dip something, or to bow or yield. The verb is a rare, old-fashioned word, and it is connected to "avail" in a way that is easy to miss. Both descend from the Old French "avaler," meaning to lower or go down, from the phrase "a val," meaning "downward" or "down the valley," which traces back to Latin "vallis," meaning valley. The sense of lowering yourself in deference is the one that survived in English. In its older uses, "vale" described lowering a flag, a sail, or the head in respect, and the bowing sense carried the idea of yielding to a superior. Over time the verb became so uncommon that most readers meet it only in older poetry and in phrases such as "vale your bonnets," where a person doffs a hat or lowers a crest in homage.