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valentine

/ˈvæləntaɪn/

Romantic card, message, or chosen sweetheart

From Late Latin valent (strong).

noun
valent
Latin
AI-inferred
valēns / valentem
present participle of valēre, 'to be strong, be worth, be well'
Late Latin
Verified
Valentinus
a personal name built from the strength/value idea

from Late Latin Valentinus , the name of two early Italian saints (from Latin valentia "strength, capacity;" see...

Middle English
AI-inferred
valentyn / valentine
used for a sweetheart chosen on St. Valentine’s Day
Modern English
AI-inferred
valentine
a card, message, gift, or person associated with Valentine's Day
Modern English
valentine
“

A name meaning “strong” somehow ended up pasted onto lace, sugar hearts, and awkward school-card exchanges. In late medieval England and France, people were already pairing off by Saint Valentine’s Day, and Chaucer gives us the lovely image of birds choosing mates “on seynt Volantynys day.” By the early 1800s, English speakers were using valentine for the card itself, which is a wonderfully human move: take a saint’s name, then turn it into stationery. The deeper irony is that the root behind it also lives in valence and valiant, so every flimsy paper heart carries a little echo of sturdiness. Love, it seems, likes to borrow words that originally meant strength.

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