trou·ba·dour 
(trbə-dôr′, -dr′)
(trbə-dôr′, -dr′)n.
1. One of a class of 12th-century and 13th-century lyric poets in southern France, northern Italy, and northern Spain, who composed songs in langue d'oc often about courtly love.
2. A strolling minstrel.
[French, from Provençal trobador, from Old Provençal, from trobar, to compose, probably from Vulgar Latin *tropāre, from Late Latin tropus, trope, song, from Latin, trope; see TROPE.]