Etymology : French, from Old Provençal trobador, from trobar to compose, probably from Vulgar Latin tropare, from Latin tropus trope
Pronunciation : 'trü-b&-"dOr, -"dor,
Function : noun
Date : circa 1741
1. medieval European poet and musician; wandering singer; wandering musician; wandering poet. troubadour\trou"ba*dour`\ , n. [f. troubadour, fr. pr. trobador, (assumed) ll. tropator a singer, tropare to sing, fr. tropus a kind of singing, a melody, song, l. tropus a trope, a song, gr. a turn, way, manner, particular mode in music, a trope. see:
trope, and cf. trouv re.] one of a school of poets who flourished from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, principally in provence, in the south of france, and also in the north of italy. they invented, and especially cultivated, a kind of lyrical poetry characterized by intricacy of meter and rhyme, and usually of a romantic, amatory strain.troubadour a singer of folk songs [syn: folk singer, jongleur, minstrel, poet-singer].
2. One of a school of poets who flourished from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, principally in Provence, in the south of France, and also in the north of Italy.
3. They invented, and especially cultivated, a kind of lyrical poetry characterized by intricacy of meter and rhyme, and usually of a romantic, amatory strain.
4. 1. Troubadours were poets and singers who used to travel around and perform to noble families in Italy and France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
5. People sometimes refer to popular singers as troubadours, especially when the words of their songs are an important part of their music. a type of singer and poet who travelled around the palaces and castles of Southern Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries (trobador, from trobar , probably from tropus; TROPE). One of a class of lyric poets and poet-musicians, often of knightly rank, that flourished from the 11th through the 13th century, chiefly in Provence and other regions of southern France, northern Spain, and northern Italy. They wrote in the langue d'oc of southern France (see:
Languedoc) and cultivated a lyric poetry intricate in metre and rhyme and usually of a romantic amatory strain reflecting the ideals of courtly love. Favoured at courts, troubadours had great freedom of speech and were charged with creating around the court ladies an aura of pleasant cultivation. Their poetry, often set to music, was to influence all later European lyrical poetry. See also trouvère.