[F. jongleur (anciently a minstrel, now a juggler or tumbler), altered or erroneous form of jougleur, in OF. jogleor:—L. joculātōr-em jester: see JUGGLER. (Hatz.-Darm. suggest that the n was due to influence of OF. jangler.)] The Norman French term (technically used by modern writers) for an itinerant minstrel, who sang and composed ballads, told stories and otherwise entertained people: = JUGGLER 1.
1779. W. Alexander, Hist. Women (1782), I. vii. 232. It was that of the Troubadours, or Poets, who composed sonnets in praise of their beauty; and of the Jongleurs who sung them at the courts and castles of the great.
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, VII. viii. A minstrel, or jongleur … with a small lute slung round him, was making his way… through the throng.
1855. Milman, Lat. Chr., XIV. iv. (1864), IX. 189. The Jongleurs (the reciters of the merry and licentious fabliaux).
b. = JUGGLER 2.
a. 1851. Moir, Poems, The dark Waggon, xv. On stage his sleights the jongleur shows.
