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troubadour

 [troo-buh-dawr, -dohr, -door]   Example Sentences Origin

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; < French < Provençal trobador, equivalent to trob(ar) to find, compose (see trover) + -ador < Latin -ātor -ator
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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a fool or simpleton; ninny.
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
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Example Sentences
  • On the inside, so to speak, our heroic troubadour quickly learns that the father.
  • The instrument he pioneered became essential for romantic troubadour trios.
  • And when taken for an acoustic-guitar troubadour who was supposed to cling to old, virtuous rural.
Collins
World English Dictionary
troubadour (ˈtruːbəˌdʊə)
 
—n
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
 
[C18: from French, from Old Provençal trobador, from trobar to write verses, perhaps ultimately from Latin tropustrope]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline
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
EXPAND
"a song" (see trope). The alternative theory among Fr. etymologists derives the O.Prov. word from a metathesis of L. 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.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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