Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. 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 men. In England however, unlike France, these court roles later came to be called "grooms". In English, valet as "personal man-servant" is recorded since 1567, though use of the term in the French-speaking English medieval court is older, and the variant form varlet is cited from 1456 (OED). Both are French importations of valet (the t being silent in French) 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, a related term.