Nearby Words

valentines

[val-uhn-tahyn] Origin

val·en·tine

[val-uhn-tahyn]
noun
1.
a card or message, usually amatory or sentimental but sometimes satirical or comical, or a token or gift sent by one person to another on Valentine Day, sometimes anonymously.
2.
a sweetheart chosen or greeted on this day.
3.
a written or other artistic work, message, token, etc., expressing affection for something or someone: His photographic essay is a valentine to Paris.

Origin:
1400–50; late Middle English, after the feast of Saint Valentine

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Valentines is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
Dictionary.com Unabridged

Val·en·tine

[val-uhn-tahyn]
noun
1.
Saint, died a.d. c270, Christian martyr at Rome.
2.
Also, Valentinus. pope a.d. 827.
3.
a male given name: from a Latin word meaning “strong.”
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To valentines
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

Valentine
mid-15c., "sweetheart chosen on St. Valentine's Day," from L.L. Valentinus, the name of two early It. saints (from L. valentia "strength, capacity;" see valence). Choosing a sweetheart on this day originated 14c. as a custom in English and French court circles. Meaning "letter
EXPAND
or card sent to a sweetheart" first recorded 1824. The romantic association of the day is said to be from it being around the time when birds choose their mates.
"For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd cometh there to chese his make."
[Chaucer, "Parlement of Foules," c.1381]
Probably the date was the informal first day of spring in whatever Fr. region invented the custom (many surviving medieval calendars reckon the start of spring on the 7th or 22nd of February). No evidence connects it with the Roman Lupercalia (an 18c. theory) or to any romantic or avian quality in either of the saints. The custom of sending special cards or letters on this date flourished in England c.1840-1870, declined around the turn of the 20th century, and revived 1920s.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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