tenson

[ ten-sohn ]

noun
  1. a Provençal poem taking the form of a dialogue or debate between two rival troubadours.

Origin of tenson

1
1830–40; <French; Old French tençon<Provençal tensoun, tenso contest, dispute <Latin tēnsiōn- (stem of tēnsiō); see tension

Words Nearby tenson

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use tenson in a sentence

  • Among the Troubadours, this species of musical dialogue took the form of the tenson, or contention.

    Woman's Work in Music | Arthur Elson
  • Disputes before these courts usually took the form of the tenson, or contention, already described.

    Woman's Work in Music | Arthur Elson
  • When more than two singers took part in a tenson, it became a tournament.

    Woman's Work in Music | Arthur Elson
  • Somewhere out in the gloom coyotes chattered and yelped, and from far across the dusky valley others answered—a doleful tenson.

    The River and I | John G. Neihardt
  • Suppose, doctor, you were to get up a tenson a little more relative to our own wise days.

    Gryll Grange | Thomas Love Peacock