trouvère

Forms

trouvère m (plural trouvères, feminine trouveresse or trouvèresse)^[1] Old French trovere, troverres (subject case) and troveor (oblique case).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French trovere (“composer, author”), the old subject case of a noun whose oblique case was troveor, from French trouver in its old sense “to compose verse, write a poem”.^[2][3][5] The modern spelling is an adaptation of the Old French word made in 1670, when it was taken up again for the medieval poets.^[4][6][5] Wiktionary also mentions a possible Gallo-Romance agent noun Vulgar Latin *tropātor from the verb *tropō, itself from Latin tropus (“figure of speech, melody”).^[1]

The Old Occitan counterpart, from Old Occitan trobar “to compose”, is the source of troubadour.^[2][7][8] Bloch and Wartburg trace the verb itself, probably, to a Vulgar Latin verb formed on the same Latin noun and meaning first “to compose a tune”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Benoît de Sainte-Maure uses trovere in his Roman de Troie (about 1165) for a composer or author.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the word meant any author or composer of a literary work, and its oblique form troveor is found by 1160.^[4][5] It was revived in 1670 by Huet as a term of literary history for the lyric poets of northern France of the 12th and 13th centuries, who wrote in the langue d'oïl.^[2][3][5] The word now names the poets and jongleurs of Normandy, Champagne, Flanders, Picardy and Artois, as against the troubadours of the Occitan south.^[5][1]

Timeline

• c. 1160 – The oblique form troveor is recorded.^[4][3]
• c. 1165 – Trovere “composer, author” in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie.^[2]
• 1188 – The plural trovëors in Aimon de Varennes' Florimont.^[2]
• c. 1225 – The spelling trouvere in Gerbert de Montreuil.^[2]
• 1670 – Huet uses trouvère for the lyric poets of the langue d'oïl.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary history) A medieval poet of northern France, from the 12th to the 14th century, who composed songs, romances and tales in the langue d'oïl, often under the patronage of a great lord.^[2][6]

Related words

• trouver
• troubadour
• trouveur

Usage notes

Littré notes that trouveur was also used occasionally, though rarely, for these poets.^[8] Wiktionary gives the feminine trouveresse.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette