Talk:Valet

Pronunciation

"The word is an English one and is correctly pronounced as "Val-ay" although the verb form in US English may be pronounced as “Val-ett.” according to http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=valet , "[Middle English valette, from Old French vaslet, valet, servant, squire, from Vulgar Latin *vassellitus, diminutive of *vassus, vassal. See vassal.]" So which is right? I have always pronounced it "Val-ay" as well as everyone around me. I know people who have been corrected from saying it "Vall-ett" Also, the dictionary.com pronunciation includes both "Vall-ett" and "Val-ay". Yet another regional difference?

I am going to delete that line for now, unless someone has something contrary to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Arilakon 12:38, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

AFAIK, according to etiquette, the person valet is correctly pronouced VAL-ett. This is the pronunciation you would find in Mrs Post's book. In American English, the implements (and the fellow who parks the cars) is val-LAY. Americans who would call Jeeves a val-Lay are looked down upon, even by other Americans. Quill 21:54, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

That seems not to be the case. American Heritage (a generally conservative dictionary) lists "val--ay'" and "val'-ay" as the primary pronunciations, followed by "val-it", without comment (the 4th edition is peppered with notes regarding nonstandard and "disparaged" uses and pronunciations). This may well be a British/American divergence, but to simply say that "val-ay" is "not considered correct" (as the article still does), is incorrect or at least incomplete. Elmo iscariot (talk) 14:26, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

As noted by others on this page, the explanation is that the pronunciation of the word valet is class-based in British and U.S. English (see U and non-U English). Upper-class people use pallet, others chalet. Since there are more of the latter than of the former, Bartleby's statement that the pronunciation chalet is "common" is true in more than one sense of that word. Xxanthippe (talk) 01:39, 2 November 2008 (UTC).

As someone who is familiar with the etiquette of the pronunciation, it is generally accepted by people who care enough to differentiate the terms that the person who parks your car is a "val-ay" while a personal male servant is a "val-ett". In some circles it is a faux pas to call a manservant a "val-ay". Just my two cents.

Val-ay is an acceptable pronunciation for the position since it is used in the US military for senior officer's personal servants and the president's. Trump's personal valet was famously struck with Covid-19. Being the military and their adherence to tradition, this will not be "corrected" any time soon so it should be accepted.--2601:205:4100:32E:F9BD:F24C:F78D:5898 (talk) 15:25, 8 May 2020 (UTC)

Just to point out what should be obvious: the posters above are largely mistaken. The pronunciation VAL-lay is the (hyper)correction of the Norman→British mispronunciation of a French word. It's culturally disparaged because the mispronunciation was so entrenched among the upper class themselves, so those using the hypercorrect spelling pronunciation were displaying that they were arrivistes. Continuing snottiness over the proper form is simply continued (or, in the case of upper-class Americans, borrowed) snottiness. That said, the poster immediately above is correct for contemporary American use. — LlywelynII 02:29, 10 June 2015 (UTC)

Alfred

Is Alfred, servant of Bruce Wayne (Batman), considered a valet?

Might I suggest that he is not? People always emphasise that, with Jeeves, he is 'Val-ett' and not 'Val-ay', pointing to his serving Wooster personally rather than his household, as is done by a butler. As Alfred's purview is more that of the Wayne household rather than Bruce Wayne (Batman)himself. tomant 15.20 15th September 2012 (BST+1) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.109.60.10 (talk) 13:36, 5 September 2012 (UTC)

Personification of the perfect valet

When I first read “personification of the perfect valet” I laughed because I had read that before. Ben Weider once used exactly the same words to describe Louis Joseph Marchand who was Napoléon I Bonapartes favourite personal servant. I don’t think personifications exists in the real world but Louis was probably as close to the perfect valet as anyone can get. 2008-12-30 Lena Synnerholm, Märsta, Sweden. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.229.19.102 (talk) 21:28, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Murder by Death

Charlessir Bensonmum —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.158.99.174 (talk) 04:25, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Move

I think this should be moved to Valet (Car Movers) --128.107.239.233 (talk) 03:48, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

Valet vs Butler

"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" - from what I know, at least in Victorian (and perhaps slightly earlier) times this was only true of households not having a butler, who would be the one in charge of money (not sure about travel arrangements) if present. I'll try to dig up a reference, but some of mine are packed (recent move). Allens (talk) 21:51, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

I think they should be kept separate, as they are functionally different. Though as Wooster says "If push comes to shove, Jeeves can buttle with the best of them." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.189.143.251 (talk) 12:06, 5 December 2011 (UTC)

Famous fictional valets

Um, don't you guys mean Kato from the Green Hornet? 128.122.24.18 (talk) 13:16, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

Richard Woodhouse, Sterling Archer's valet on the show "Archer". Geoffrey Barbara Butler, the Banks family's butler on "The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.175.42.205 (talk) 03:24, 29 December 2014 (UTC)

wrong link

The link to the dutch page (Nederlands) leads you to a page about wrestling managers???