trou·ba·dour

(tro͞o′bə-dôr′, -do͝or′)

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, probably from Vulgar Latin *tropāre, from Late Latin tropus, trope, song, from Latin, trope; see trope.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

troubadour

(ˈtruːbəˌdʊə)

1. (Historical Terms) 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. (Music, other) a singer

[C18: from French, from Old Provençal trobador, from trobar to write verses, perhaps ultimately from Latin tropus trope]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

trou•ba•dour

(ˈtru bəˌdɔr, -ˌdoʊr, -ˌdʊər)

n.

1. one of a class of lyric poets who lived principally in S France from the 11th to 13th centuries and wrote songs and poems in langue d'oc, chiefly on themes of courtly love. Compare trouvère.

2. any wandering singer or minstrel.

[1720–30; < French < Occitan trobador <trob(ar) to find, compose]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

troubadour - a singer of folk songs

folk singer, jongleur, minstrel, poet-singer

singer, vocalist, vocalizer, vocaliser - a person who sings

troubadour

noun minstrel, singer, poet, balladeer, lyric poet, jongleur melodies like a medieval troubadour's laments

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

troubadour

[ˈtruːbədɔːʳ] N → trovador m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

troubadour

n → Troubadour m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

'He's quite a Troubadour, you know; quite a Troubadour!'

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Solomon Lucas did) to have been the regular, authentic, everyday costume of a troubadour, from the earliest ages down to the time of their final disappearance from the face of the earth.

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If poor Troubadour had not cast a shoe, we should not have had this trouble.

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"Has your Highness seen the Lady viola tonight?" asked a gallant troubadour of the fairy queen who floated down the hall upon his arm.

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Is it due to excess of poetry or of stupidity that we are never weary of describing what King James called a woman's "makdom and her fairnesse," never weary of listening to the twanging of the old Troubadour strings, and are comparatively uninterested in that other kind of "makdom and fairnesse" which must be wooed with industrious thought and patient renunciation of small desires?

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The cross marks the spot where a celebrated troubadour was waylaid and murdered in the fourteenth century.

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He acted as if a troubadour had still a definite social office, like a bishop.

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So it dresses in black coats and trousers, and black hats, and black boots, and, dear me, it is such a very respectable gentleman--to think it could ever have gone gadding about as a troubadour or a knight-errant, dressed in all those fancy colors!

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Norman of Torn and the old man seldom joined in these wild orgies, but when minstrel, or troubadour, or storyteller wandered to his grim lair the Outlaw of Torn would sit enjoying the break in the winter's dull monotony to as late an hour as another; nor could any man of his great fierce horde outdrink their chief when he cared to indulge in the pleasures of the wine cup.

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Nothing short of having your heads served up in a dish like that mediaeval tenor or troubadour, would prevent you from expressing your entire resignation.

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As Cedric the Saxon then was, his plain English tale needed no garnish from French troubadours, when it was told in the ear of beauty; and the field of Northallerton, upon the day of the Holy Standard, could tell whether the Saxon war-cry was not heard as far within the ranks of the Scottish host as the cri de guerre of the boldest Norman baron.

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"And better than thou thinkest," replied Don Quixote, "as thou shalt see when thou carriest a letter written in verse from beginning to end to my lady Dulcinea del Toboso, for I would have thee know, Sancho, that all or most of the knights-errant in days of yore were great troubadours and great musicians, for both of these accomplishments, or more properly speaking gifts, are the peculiar property of lovers-errant: true it is that the verses of the knights of old have more spirit than neatness in them."

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