Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

Petrarchan

American  
[pi-trahr-kuhn] / pɪˈtrɑr kən /

adjective

  1. of, relating to, or characteristic of the works of Petrarch.

  2. characteristic or imitative of the style of Petrarch.


noun

  1. Petrarchist.

Etymology

Origin of Petrarchan

First recorded in 1820–30; Petrarch + -an

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

It’s also true that, in order to portray the kinds of psychic shifts required by the Petrarchan volta, Lock would have had to allow herself the kind of invention that was forbidden to women.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 5, 2019

Post-debate analysis will reveal that all of her answers will have been composed as perfect Petrarchan sonnets.

From Washington Post • Apr. 18, 2017

A favorite scholarly idea is that these questions mistake Shakespeare’s real purpose, which was to invent a group of characters in order to play with Petrarchan conventions.

From The New Yorker • Jun. 29, 2015

Daphne paced the mosaic floors in idleness, or spelled out the meaning of Petrarchan sonnets in an old vellum copy she had found in the library.

From Daphne, an autumn pastoral by Sherwood, Margaret Pollock

Wyatt, it should be observed, generally departs from the Petrarchan rime-scheme, on the whole unfortunately, by substituting a third quatrain for the first four lines of the sestet.

From A History of English Literature by Fletcher, Robert Huntington