vall, a vale. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iv. 479. F. ‘val, a vale’ (Cotgr.).
vallies, ‘valise’. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, ii. 1 (near the end). See Dict.
valure, value, worth. Peele, Sir Clyomon (ed. Dyce, p. 506); Pembroke, Arcadia (Nares); Mirror for Mag. 280; hence, valurous, valuable, Marlowe, 1 Tamburlaine, i. 2 (Tamb.). See Dict. (s.v. Valour).
vannes, pl. wings, Milton, P. L. ii. 927. Cp. Ital. vanni, ‘the whole wings of any bird’ (Florio).
vance, to ‘advance’. Tusser, Husbandry, § 113. 7.
vantbrace, the ‘vambrace’, armour for the fore-arm, Milton, Samson, 1121; Tr. and Cr. i. 3. 297. F. avant-bras, ‘the part of the arm which extends from the elbow to the wrist; also, a vambrace armour for an arm’ (Cotgr.).
vantguard, the ‘vanguard’, front rank. Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iv. 266. ME. vaunt-gard (Holinshed, Chron. Edw. III, ann. 1346; F. avant-garde, ‘the vanguard of an army’ (Cotgr.).
vapour, fume, steam; used, like humour, to denote a man’s characteristic quality, B. Jonson, Barth. Fair, ii (passim). See full account of this use of the word in Nares (s.v.). Cp. the use of the F. word vapeurs. ‘On appelle Vapeurs dans le corps humain, Les affections hypocondriaques & hystériques, parce qu’on les croyoit causées par des fumées élevées de l’estemac ou du bas ventre vers le cerveau’, Dict. de l’Acad. (ed. 1762).
vardingale, a ‘farthingale’. Three Lords and Three Ladies, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vi. 434. This is the form in Cotgrave (s.vv. Vertugalle and Vertugadin). F. verdugale (Rabelais); ‘sorte de cerceau, panier ou jupon bouffant pour seutenir les jupes’ (Jannet’s Gloss.). Span. verdugado, ‘a Petticoat . . . set out below with a small Hoop, below with one wider and so wider and wider down to the Feet, so that it looks exactly like a Funnel’ (Stevens). See [verdugal].
vare, a wand. Dryden, Absalom, 595. Span. vára, a wand (Stevens.)