English
value
Value comes from Old French value, participle of valoir, from Latin valeō ‘to be strong, be worth’, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂welh₁-1‘to be strong’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*walēō1‘to be strong’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvaleō1‘to be strong, be worth’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400valoir1
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400value1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500valew1
- Englishearliest quotation 1590value1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English value
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto VI: “Who ſoone prepard to field, his ſword forth drew,…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₂welh₁-Wiktionary, English value‘to be strong’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*walēōWiktionary, English value‘to be strong’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvaleōWiktionary, English value‘to be strong, be worth’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400valoirWiktionary, English value
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400valueWiktionary, English value
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500valewWiktionary, English value
- Englishearliest quotation 1590valueWiktionary, English value. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book II, Canto VI: “Who ſoone prepard to field, his ſword forth drew,…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with value, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- ‘to be strong’
- wild ← weilde ← wilde ← *wilþī ← *wilþijaz
- wool ← wolle ← wull ← *wullu ← *wullō
- velvet ← veluet ← *villutittus ← villus ← vellus
- validation
- invalid ← invalide ← invalidus ← validus ← valeō
- validity ← validité ← validitas ← validus ← valeō
- wield ← welde ← *waldi ← *waldiz ← *waldaną
- flannel ← flaunneol ← flaine ← *wlānos ← *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂
- validate ← validātus
- fluff ← vluwe
- cuckold ← cokolde ← cucuault ← cuculus
- ambivalent ← Ambivalenz ← valeō ← *walēō ← *h₂wl̥h₁éh₁yeti
71 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
noun The quality that renders something desirable or valuable; worth.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “value”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- / value