noun

1. any of a class of lyric poets and poet-musicians in S France and N Spain and Italy during the 11th through 13th cent. who wrote poems and songs of love and chivalry, usually with intricate stanza form and rhyme scheme
2. a minstrel or singer

Etymology: Fr < Prov trobador < trobar, to compose, invent, find < ? VL *tropare, prob. back-form. < contropare, to combine, compare < L con-, with (> OL com: see com-) + L tropus, trope