Meanings
plural Valentinos · plural Valentinoes
- A surname from Italian.
plural Valentinos
- datedA strikingly handsome man, particularly one similar in appearance to Rudolph Valentino.
He was a real Valentino.
1 more example
She was working on a stage which represented a guardroom for Christian prisoners, and presently they went there and watched Nicotera, one of many hopeful Valentinos, strut and pose before a dozen female “captives,” their eyes melancholy and startling with mascara.
1934, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, edited by Malcolm Cowley, Tender is the Night […], New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1951, →OCLC, book IV (Escape: 1925–1929), page 230
Synonyms & antonyms
nounSynonym of gigolo, a handsome man funded by an older woman.
Origin
- LatinValentīnus“Valentine”
- ItalianValentino
- EnglishValentino
From Italian Valentino, from Latin Valentīnus (“Valentine”), a patronymic from Valēns (Roman cognomen), itself nominalized from vālens (“strong, healthy”) + -īnus (“-ine”). As a noun, named after Italian-American actor Rudolph Valentino (1895–1926). Doublet of Valentine, Valentinus, Valentina, and Valentini.
More words from Italian, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
Valentino. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Valentino
“Valentino.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Valentino. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Valentino,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Valentino.
Source: Valentino on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.