Etymograph

English

valise

Valise comes from French valise ‘case, suitcase’, and goes back to Late Latin valisia.

  1. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEvalisianext step skipped: Arabic وَلِيهَة
  2. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500valesianext step skipped: Italian valigia
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600valise
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentsame form‘case, suitcase’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1842same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Late Latinc. 200–600 CEvalisianext step skipped: Arabic وَلِيهَة
  2. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500valesianext step skipped: Italian valigia
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600valise
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentsame form‘case, suitcase’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1842same form

Earliest quotation: 1842, anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizab, Keeping up Appearances. […]: “Finding upon the corpse more money than was required…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *welH- ‘to roll, to undulate’

well, walk, volume, wall, revolution, evolution, involve, evolve, revolt, vault, valve, vulgar, waltz, convoluted, helix, divulge, voluminous, vagrant, gauche, vulva, convolution, vulgate, wale, iliac, involution, voluble, ilium, valvular, 76 more

Today it means

noun A piece of hand luggage such as a suitcase or travelling bag.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Late Latin valisia / valise

Shirt and support for this word