Variant or obsolete form of 'valiant'; brave, courageous, or bold in archaic or dialectal usage.
From Old French 'vaillant' through dialectal or scribal variation where 'v' shifted to 'b'; related to 'valiant' (brave). This form is primarily found in Middle English texts and rare survivals in dialect.
Medieval scribes sometimes wrote 'b' and 'v' interchangeably, so reading old texts is like watching letters morph before your eyes—'ballant,' 'valiant,' and 'vaillant' were all the same word at different times and places.
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