TROUBADOUR

[trou.ba.dour] n [F, fr. OProv trobador, fr. trobar to compose, prob. fr. (assumed) VL tropare, fr. L tropus trope] (ca. 1741): one of a class of lyric poets and poet-musicians often of knightly rank who flourished from the 11th to the end of the 13th century chiefly in the south of France and the north of Italy and whose major theme was courtly love--compare trouvere