Definitions

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

  • noun One of the German lyric poets and singers in the troubadour tradition who flourished from the 1100s to the 1300s.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of a class of German lyric poets and singers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, so called because love was the chief theme of their poems.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A love-singer; specifically, one of a class of German poets and musicians who flourished from about the middle of the twelfth to the middle of the fourteenth century. They were chiefly of noble birth, and made love and beauty the subjects of their verses.

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

  • noun In 12th-14th century Germany, a peripatetic musician, often performing songs of courtly love

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German, from Middle High German : minne, love (from Old High German minna; see men- in Indo-European roots) + singer, singer; see Meistersinger.]

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Examples

  • His last production as a minnesinger was a prescription for a "virtue-electuary."

    Jewish Literature and Other Essays Gustav Karpeles 1878

  • There is also the possibility that their ubiquitous ‘lady’—she who must be obeyed, if only from a chaste distance, was meant to be understood at an esoteric level as something else, as their German name of minnesinger suggests.

    The Templar Revelation Lynn Picknett 2004

  • There is also the possibility that their ubiquitous ‘lady’—she who must be obeyed, if only from a chaste distance, was meant to be understood at an esoteric level as something else, as their German name of minnesinger suggests.

    The Templar Revelation Lynn Picknett 2004

  • For example, it actually makes the statement: ‘God is the Universal Mother…’ and clearly reveals a strong Cathar inspiration, besides that of the troubadour/minnesinger tradition18.

    The Templar Revelation Lynn Picknett 2004

  • For example, it actually makes the statement: ‘God is the Universal Mother…’ and clearly reveals a strong Cathar inspiration, besides that of the troubadour/minnesinger tradition18.

    The Templar Revelation Lynn Picknett 2004

  • Holm followed as best he could and got in many a splendid howl, though as a minnesinger he held no brief for his own powers.

    The Road Leads On 2003

  • His orders are terse and clear, like those of the others, agents of the Pope, Pope got religion, go out 'n' find that minnesinger, he's a good guy after all ....

    Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon, Thomas 1978

  • He played upon the harp with more than common skill, and could personate the regular minnesinger to perfection.

    The Truce of God A Tale of the Eleventh Century George Henry Miles

  • "Humbert!" exclaimed the youth, in a searching whisper, "would you like to play the minnesinger in this storm?"

    The Truce of God A Tale of the Eleventh Century George Henry Miles

  • And sometimes in the long winter evenings, when the fire sparkled brightly and the old man was garrulous with joy, he would tell how he once entered a hostile castle as a minnesinger with a noble lover, and how the knight defied the angry father.

    The Truce of God A Tale of the Eleventh Century George Henry Miles

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