Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun In Arthurian legend, an Irish princess who married the king of Cornwall and had a love affair with his knight Tristan.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A female given name.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (Middle Ages) the bride of the king of Cornwall who (according to legend) fell in love with the king's nephew (Tristan) after they mistakenly drank a love potion that left them eternally in love with each other

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the name of the queen who fell in love with Tristan in medieval romance; possibly from Celtic, of uncertain meaning, or from Germanic, equivalent to Old High German is ("ice") + hiltja ("battle").

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Examples

  • Laura, the name Iseult is pretty common, there are two already in the Tristan legend - in one version there's the Irish Iseult Tristan is in love with, and a Breton one Iseult Whitehand he marries though he never consumates the marriage.

    HH Com 397 Miss Snark 2006

  • What elixir of eternal love had they drunk together as had Tristram and Iseult of old time?

    WHEN GOD LAUGHS 2010

  • The audience was to shout out suggestions, and we the panelists - Tony Finan, Genevieve Iseult Eldredge, Alyce Wilson, Andrew C. Ely and yours truly - were to determine who would win.

    And the All-Time Champion of the World Is... frankwu 2009

  • Perhaps he had had somebody like her in mind when he painted that girl, Iseult, in the book there on the table.

    Chapter 1 2010

  • In the myth of Tristan & Iseult, those destined for torment & misery—that is, high romantic love—meet in deception, fall in love by magic spell, and pursue that romantic love in defiance of heavenly & earthly law, and to their own destruction.

    First Love & Other Obsessions Gary Percesepe 2011

  • For the cobia with honeysuckle, jasmine and potato pave, a Tristan and Iseult made with Patron anejo tequila, Patron Citronge and jasmine honey chardonnay syrup.

    D.C. rocks the Patron Express 2010

  • But for the existence of a husband, the lovers would have had to get married; and it is unbelievable that Tristan should ever be in a position to marry Iseult.

    The Vivisection of Bone, Part 1: Romancing the Bone 2007

  • It was written by a good friend of mine Kate Farrell and I've included audio links to a different retelling of the Tristan and Iseult legend as well.

    Book Review: Twilight of Avalon: A Novel of Trystan and Isolde by Anna Elliot 2009

  • To make her case, she takes us into a dark forest to show us the doomed lovers Tristan and Iseult, lying with a sword between their hot bodies.

    More Amour Meghan Cox Gurdon 2009

  • Iseult the Fair love has always been nourished by obstacles romance only comes into existence when love is fatal, frowned upon doomed by life what draws us is the story?

    Missionary 2009

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