courtly love

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English

Noun

courtly love (uncountable)

  1. A mediaeval European conception of noble and chivalrous love, generally secret and between members of the nobility.
    • 2005, Slavoj Žižek, The Metastases of Enjoyment: Six Essays on Women and Causality, Verso, →ISBN, page 89:
      The impression that courtly love is out of date, long superseded by modern manners, is a lure blinding us to how the logic of courtly love still defines the parameters within which the two sexes relate to each other.

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