"valiant character" (obsolete or archaic), mid-15c., earlier vailance (late 14c.), from Anglo-French vaillaunce, valiauns (c. 1300) or Old French vaillance "value, price; merit, worth; virtue, fine qualities; courage, valor" (12c.), from Old French valiant "stalwart, brave," present-participle adjective from valoir "be worthy," originally "be strong," from Latin valere "be strong, be well, be worth, have power, be able, be in health" (from PIE root *wal- "to be strong").