Romance

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

·adj Of or pertaining to the language or dialects known as Romance.

II. Romance ·vi To write or tell romances; to indulge in extravagant stories.

III. Romance ·noun A short lyric tale set to music; a song or short instrumental piece in ballad style; a romanza.

IV. Romance ·noun A dreamy, imaginative habit of mind; a disposition to ignore what is real; as, a girl full of romance.

V. Romance ·noun An adventure, or series of extraordinary events, resembling those narrated in romances; as, his courtship, or his life, was a romance.

VI. Romance ·noun The languages, or rather the several dialects, which were originally forms of popular or vulgar Latin, and have now developed into Italian. Spanish, French, ·etc. (called the Romanic languages).

VII. Romance ·noun A species of fictitious writing, originally composed in meter in the Romance dialects, and afterward in prose, such as the tales of the court of Arthur, and of Amadis of Gaul; hence, any fictitious and wonderful tale; a sort of novel, especially one which treats of surprising adventures usually befalling a hero or a heroine; a tale of extravagant adventures, of love, and the like.