The story
- Old French · derived fromavaler“to descend, go down”
- Anglo-Norman · derived fromvalaunce
- Middle English · inherited fromvalance
- English todayvalance
From Middle English valance, valans, valaunce, valence, valons. Origin uncertain. Probably from Anglo-Norman valaunce, valence, from valer (“go down, let down”), aphetic form of Old French avaler (“to descend, go down”).
Words from the same roots
Old Frenchavaler all →
avale
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.