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troubadour

[troo-buh-dawr, -dohr, -doo r]
noun
  1. 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.
  2. any wandering singer or minstrel.

Origin of troubadour

1720–30; < French < Provençal trobador, equivalent to trob(ar) to find, compose (see trover) + -ador < Latin -ātor -ator
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for troubadours

minstrel, songwriter, crooner, artist, musician, bard, poet, songster, jongleur, balladeer, accompanist, vocalist, minnesinger, serenader, trouveur

Examples from the Web for troubadours

Contemporary Examples of troubadours

Historical Examples of troubadours

  • The rise of the Troubadours is due wholly to Oriental influences.

  • They are the troubadours these birds, the wanderers whose souls are in their voices.

    In the Open

    Stanton Davis Kirkham

  • I lived at the court of Avalon, the home of Love and Troubadours.

    Under the Witches' Moon

    Nathan Gallizier

  • Suddenly all the music of the troubadours was hushed in dreadful expectation.

  • Im booked with the Troubadours from the first of July; next Monday.

    Twos and Threes

    G. B. Stern

British Dictionary definitions for troubadours

troubadour

noun
  1. 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
  2. a singer

Word Origin for troubadour

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 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for troubadours

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.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
troubadours in Culture

troubadours

Traveling poet-musicians who flourished in southern Europe during the twelfth century. They wrote songs about chivalry and love.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.