troubadour
[troo-buh-dawr, -dohr, -doo r]
- one of a class of medieval lyric poets who flourished principally in southern France from the 11th to 13th centuries, and wrote songs and poems of a complex metrical form in langue d'oc, chiefly on themes of courtly love.Compare trouvère.
- any wandering singer or minstrel.
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Origin of troubadour
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for troubadour
Contemporary Examples
Llewyn Davis is a troubadour and vagabond, one who happens to be in grief.
The band is now touring Britain, after playing at the Troubadour in London and releasing their second CD.
‘Downton Abbey’ Star Elizabeth McGovern on Season 3, ‘Cheerful Weather for the Wedding,’ and MoreLorenza Muñoz
December 31, 2012
Historical Examples
If poor Troubadour had not cast a shoe, we should not have had this trouble.
The White CompanyArthur Conan Doyle
Yates walked merrily down the road, whistling "Gayly the troubadour."
In the Midst of AlarmsRobert Barr
With that he was poet, troubadour, orator, as well as very eccentric and attractive.
Initiation into PhilosophyEmile Faguet
The songs of Marcabrun, the troubadour, find a place in the list among the stories.
Epic and RomanceW. P. Ker
The example of the first Jewish troubadour did not find imitators.
Jewish Literature and Other EssaysGustav Karpeles
troubadour
- any of a class of lyric poets who flourished principally in Provence and N Italy from the 11th to the 13th centuries, writing chiefly on courtly love in complex metric form
- a singer
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Word Origin
C18: from French, from Old Provençal trobador, from trobar to write verses, perhaps ultimately from Latin tropus trope
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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Word Origin and History for troubadour
n.
1727, from French troubadour "one of a class of lyric poets in southern France, eastern Spain, and northern Italy 11c.-13c.," from Old Provençal trobador, from trobar "to find," earlier "invent a song, compose in verse," perhaps from Vulgar Latin *tropare "compose, sing," especially in the form of tropes, from Latin tropus "a song" (see trope). The alternative theory among French etymologists derives the Old Provençal word from a metathesis of Latin turbare "to disturb," via a sense of "to turn up." Meanwhile, Arabists posit an origin in Arabic taraba "to sing." General sense of "one who composes or sings verses or ballads" first recorded 1826.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper