English
trouvère
Trouvère comes from French trouvère ‘a trouvère, medieval lyric poet using the…’, and goes back to Old French trovere.
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400trovere
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600trouvere
- Frenchc. 1600–presenttrouvère‘a trouvère, medieval lyric poet using the Northern langue d'oïl’
- Englishearliest quotation 2017same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400trovere
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600trouvere
- Frenchc. 1600–presenttrouvère‘a trouvère, medieval lyric poet using the Northern langue d'oïl’
- Englishearliest quotation 2017same form
Earliest quotation: 2017, Velvel Pasternak, Behind the Music: “The activities of Jewish singers immediately before the expulsion…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *trep- ‘to turn’
thrive, intrepid, trepidation, turpitude, 30 more
through Ancient Greek τρέπω ‘turn, divert, turn back, rout an enemy’
through Latin tropus ‘a figurative use of a word, a trope’
Today it means
noun A medieval lyric poet using the Northern langue d’oïl (precursor dialects of modern French), as opposed to their older, southern example, the original troubadours, who used langue d’oc (Occitan)
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old French trovere / trouvère