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troubadour

 - 3 dictionary results

trou⋅ba⋅dour

[troo-buh-dawr, -dohr, -door]
–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:
1720–30; < F < Pr trobador, equiv. to trob(ar) to find, compose (see trover ) + -ador < L -ātor -ator
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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trou·ba·dour   (trōō'bə-dôr', -dōr', -dŏŏr')   
n.  
  1. One of a class of 12th-century and 13th-century lyric poets in Southern France, northern Italy, and northern Spain, who composed songs in langue d'oc often about courtly love.

  2. A strolling minstrel.


[French, from Provençal trobador, from Old Provençal, from trobar, to compose, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *tropāre, from Late Latin tropus, trope, song, from Latin, trope; see trope.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

troubadour 
1727, from Fr. troubadour "one of a class of lyric poets in southern France, eastern Spain, and northern Italy 11c.-13c.," from O.Prov. trobador, from trobar "to find," earlier "invent a song, compose in verse," probably from V.L. *tropare "compose, sing," especially in the form of tropes, from L. tropus "a song" (see trope). The alternate theory among Fr. etymologists derives the O.Prov. word from a metathesis of L. turbare "to disturb," via a sense of "to turn up." General sense of "one who composes or sings verses or ballads" first recorded 1826.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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