Valet and Varlet are terms for male servants who serve as personal attendants to their employer. In the Middle Ages, the valet de chambre to a ruler was a prestigious appointment for young courtiers, though in England, unlike France, these court roles later came to be called "grooms".
In English, valet "personal man-servant" is recorded since 1567, though use of the term in the French-speaking English medieval court is much older, and the variant form varlet is cited from 1456 (OED). Both are French importations of valet (the t being silent) or varlet, Old French variants of vaslet "man's servant," originally "squire, young man," assumed to be from Gallo-Romance *vassellittus "young nobleman, squire, page," diminutive of Medieval Latin vassallus, from vassus "servant", possibly cognate to an Old Celtic root wasso- "young man, squire" (source of Welsh gwas "youth, servant," Breton goaz "servant, vassal, man," Irish foss "servant"). See yeoman, possibly derived from yonge man.
