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valentine
(val′ən tīn′)
noun
- a sweetheart chosen or greeted on Saint Valentine's Day
- one's sweetheart
- a greeting card or note sent to a real or pretended sweetheart on this day, and containing a message of sentimental love
- a burlesque of this, often sent anonymously
- a gift presented on Saint Valentine's Day
Origin: ME < OFr
noun
a masculine name
Origin: ME < L Valentinus < Valens, a masculine name < valens, prp.: see valence
Valentine,
Saint (3d cent. ); Christian martyr of Rome: his day is Feb. 14
See valentine in American Heritage Dictionary 4
noun
- a. A sentimental or humorous greeting card sent to a sweetheart, friend, or family member, for example, on Saint Valentine's Day.b. A gift sent as a token of love to one's sweetheart on Saint Valentine's Day.
- A person singled out especially as one's sweetheart on Saint Valentine's Day.
Origin:
Origin: After Saint Valentine
. Word History: Lovers and the greeting card industry may have Geoffrey Chaucer to thank for the holiday that warms the coldest month. Although reference books abound with mentions of Roman festivals from which Valentine's Day may derive, Jack B. Oruch has shown that no evidence supports these connections and that Chaucer was probably the first to link the saint's day with the custom of choosing sweethearts. No such link has been found before the writings of Chaucer and several literary contemporaries who also mention it, but after them the association becomes widespread. It seems likely that Chaucer, the most imaginative of the group, invented it. The fullest and perhaps earliest description of the Valentine's Day tradition occurs in Chaucer's Parlement of Foules, composed around 1380, which takes place “on Seynt Valentynes day,/Whan every foul cometh there to chese [choose] his make [mate].”
Roman Christian who according to tradition was martyred during the persecution of Christians by Emperor Claudius II. Saint Valentine's Day was primarily celebrated in his honor, but was also inspired by another martyr named Valentine, who was bishop of Terni, a region in central Italy.
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