- 1英勇的、勇猛的（帶古典、莊重的味道）。注意 a valiant effort 常暗指「雖敗猶榮」。
Brave — but with an old, noble flavour, and usually about someone facing something very hard or dangerous. It sounds like knights, soldiers and old stories, so in modern everyday speech people say brave instead. Where valiant really lives now is in one very common pattern: a valiant effort, a valiant attempt, a valiant fight. And there is something worth noticing there — when people say 'a valiant effort', they very often mean the person tried hard and but did not succeed. 'They made a valiant attempt to save the building' usually means the building burned down. That shade of gentle, respectful failure is not in the dictionary line, but native speakers hear it. Used about a person directly — 'a valiant soldier', 'her valiant struggle with illness' — it is warm and full of respect, and it is common in news writing about serious illness or disaster. It has a related noun, , and an adverb, valiantly, which is even more common than the adjective: 'she fought valiantly'.
From the word’s history
From Middle English vailaunt, from Anglo-Norman and Old French vaillant 'brave', from Latin valēre 'to be strong; to be worth'.
經古法文 vaillant「勇敢」，來自拉丁文 valēre「強壯」。
組成From Old French vaillant, the -ing form of valoir 'to be worth, to have value', from Latin valēre 'to be strong, to be worth'. So the old idea inside it is not fearlessness but strength and worth — a person who is worth something when it matters.
原始詞典資料3 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
valiantadj/ˈvæliənt/
- 1
Possessing or showing courage or determination; brave, heroic.
- A valiant man’s look is more than a coward’s sword.
- For by readyng of hiſtories fyrſte we know how longe time mightie empyres, great kyngedomes, famous common weales and citees haue floriſhed: how many yeres noble prynces, valiant capitaynes, and wyſe gouernours haue reigned: in what age they were, which was before other, and how farre diſtante in tyme one from an other.
- 2
Characterized by or done with bravery or valour.
- another valiant attempt at rescue
- She is a theame of honour and renowne, / A ſpurre to valiant and magnanimous deeds, / Whoſe preſent courage may beate downe our foes, / And fame in time to come canonize us, [...]
valiantnoun/ˈvæliənt/
- 1
obsoleteA person who acts with valour, showing hero-like characteristics in the midst of danger.
- Cowards dye many times before their deaths, / The valiant neuer taſte of death but once: [...]
- O yee Angells, yee Champions and valiants of the court of heauen, and ſtout ſoldiers of Chriſt your King, who euerie one ſingle is able to encounter and to defeat the greateſt armie that euer was ſeene on earth, where are you?
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。