courtly love

noun

: a late medieval conventionalized code prescribing conduct and emotions of ladies and their lovers

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

The name for our modern holiday comes from St. Valentine of Terni, a third-century Roman saint, who has become linked with the idea of courtly love. —Leada Gore | [e-mail], al, 14 Feb. 2023

Ser Criston Cole could have walked right off the page of one of these tales, but his view of courtly love presents a more honest, uncomfortable reality: male entitlement, and the anger that swiftly comes when a woman steps off her pedestal and tries to exert her own will. —Philip Ellis, Men's Health, 21 Sep. 2022

Indeed, the rituals of courtly love were used to break Anne. —Tina Brown, New York Times, 15 Dec. 2022

Her insistence that Christian woo her with wit isn’t a coquette’s trick of putting her beau through the ritualized paces of courtly love but a smart woman’s search for a partner, a worthy match. —Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 18 Apr. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1702, in the meaning defined above