Valorize

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Dr. Goodword
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Valorize

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sun Feb 05, 2012 11:53 pm

• valorize •

Pronunciation: væl-êr-aiz • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transitive

Meaning: 1. To give or assign a certain value. 2. To fix a price on a commodity.

Notes: This word is based on the noun valor (valour in the UK) in the sense of "monetary value", not in the current sense of "bravery". The noun accompanying this verb is valorization and it comes with an adjective, valorizational, and an adverb, valorizationally.

In Play: The basic sense of this word is to put a price on something: "Valor cannot be valorized." A stronger sense of fixing prices is also available: "Germany valorizes book prices to prevent large companies from putting small companies out of business by lowering prices to the point small businesses cannot compete."

Word History: Today's Good Word comes from Late Latin valor "value", a noun derived from valere "be worth, be strong". The meaning "courage" is first recorded in the 1580s. English has been quite busy borrowing words from French and Latin with this root: valid, valiant, valediction, and ambivalence, to mention only a few. When the ancestor of valor came down to Germanic languages, it picked up the suffix -d instead of -or. It shows up in English wield, which once meant "to rule", and German walten "to prevail, reign". The same suffix was taken into the Slavic languages and turns up in Russian as vlast' "power". (We cannot valorize this contribution from Kyu Ho Youm to our Good Word series, but we can thank him for it.)
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Slava
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Re: VALORIZE

Postby Slava » Mon Jun 30, 2014 10:19 pm

Even though I've read the entry, I still want this one to mean something along the lines of proving one's valor. "Sir Tilt-a-Whirl surely valorized himself in today's jousts."
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Perry Lassiter
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Re: Valorize

Postby Perry Lassiter » Tue Jul 01, 2014 9:20 pm

Perhaps the term ad valorem tax would help a bit in the understanding.
pl


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