Although the word “troubadour” has become nearly synonymous with “singer”, scholarly opinion varies regarding the etymology of the word itself. Romanists hold that the noun derives from trobar, the Occitan verb for “to compose, invent, devise” or from the Vulgar Latin tropare “to say with tropes” or tropatorem, “composer of tropes” (Topsfield). Arabists, on the other hand, cite the verb caraba, “to sing” as the more probable source (Menocal). The question of etymologyas well as the importance of influences from Latin and Arabic, Celtic and liturgical songremain open to discussion.

The troubadours were composers of songs or poems wh

This article in full comprises 2960 words but only the first 150 or so words are available to non-members.

All our articles have been written recently by experts in their field, more than 95% of them university professors. To read about membership, please click here.

Published 25 August 2005

Citation: M. Davis, Judith. "Troubadours". The Literary Encyclopedia. 25 August 2005.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1310, accessed 9 February 2010.]