minstrel
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L323978 on Wikidata ↗verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L332208 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈmɪnstɹ(ə)l/
noun
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English minstral, menestrel (“actor; juggler; mime; musician; singer; storyteller; (military) soldier playing a horn or trumpet as a signal”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman menestrel [and other forms] and Old French menestrel (“artisan; servant; itinerant musician or poet; worker”) [and other forms] (modern French ménestrel (“minstrel”)), from Late Latin ministerialis (“official or retainer owing household and military service to a feudal lord, a ministerial or ministerialis”), from Latin ministerium (“employment, ministration; office of a minister, ministry; action or attendance by an inferior person such as a slave, service”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives). Ministerium is derived from minister (“accomplice; agent; aide; attendant; servant; waiter”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mey-n- (“little, small”) + *-yōs (“-er”, comparative suffix) + *-teros (contrastive or oppositional suffix forming adjectives)) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns). Doublet of ministerial and ministerialis. The verb is derived from the noun.
- Originally, an entertainer employed to juggle, play music, sing, tell stories, etc.; a buffoon, a fool, a jester; later, a medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment.
“I forgette to tel you what a ſtirre he keepes againſt dumbe ministers, and neuer writes nor talkes of them, but hee calleth them minſtrels, […]”
“Should a Minſtrel ſing to a ſweet tune with her voice, and play to another with her hand that is harſh and diſpleaſing; ſuch muſick would more grate the judicious ear, than if ſhe had ſung to what ſhe plaid? Thus to ſing to truth with our judgement, and play wickedneſs with our heart and hand in our life, is more abhorring to God and all good men, than where the judgement is erroneous, as well as the life ungodly.”
- Any lyric poet, musician, or singer.
“One flame-winged brought a white-winged harp-player / Even where my lady and I lay all alone; / Saying: "Behold, this minstrel is unknown; / Bid him depart, for I am minstrel here: / Only my strains are to Love's dear ones dear."”
- One of a troupe of entertainers, often a white person who wore black makeup (blackface), to present a so-called minstrel show, being a variety show of banjo music, dance, and song (now regarded as racist).
“After tea it was the entertainment. Songs and conjuring and a play called "Box and Cox," very amusing, and a lot of throwing things about in it—bacon and chops and things—and nigger minstrels. We clapped till our hands were sore.”
- An amphetamine tablet, typically black, or black and white, in colour.
“These include dexamphetamine ( Dexedrine 'dexies ' or 'oranges'), methylamphetamine (Methedrine—'speed'), dexamphetamine combined with amylobarbitone (Drinamyl—'purple hearts' or 'blues'), amphetamine combined with dexamphetamine (Anorexine 12.5 mg - black and white minstrels' and Anorexine 20 mg—'black bombs'), phemetrazine (Preludin), diethylpropion (Tenuate), and methylphenidate (Ritalin).”
“Lacking food, Jimmy reverts to his “minstrels'” — speed — and in a paranoia of drugs and near-starvation the pair fall out.”
verb
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English minstral, menestrel (“actor; juggler; mime; musician; singer; storyteller; (military) soldier playing a horn or trumpet as a signal”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman menestrel [and other forms] and Old French menestrel (“artisan; servant; itinerant musician or poet; worker”) [and other forms] (modern French ménestrel (“minstrel”)), from Late Latin ministerialis (“official or retainer owing household and military service to a feudal lord, a ministerial or ministerialis”), from Latin ministerium (“employment, ministration; office of a minister, ministry; action or attendance by an inferior person such as a slave, service”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives). Ministerium is derived from minister (“accomplice; agent; aide; attendant; servant; waiter”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mey-n- (“little, small”) + *-yōs (“-er”, comparative suffix) + *-teros (contrastive or oppositional suffix forming adjectives)) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns). Doublet of ministerial and ministerialis. The verb is derived from the noun.
- To play (a tune on a musical instrument); to sing (a song).
“Blest be the impulse which did urge me forth, / Minstrelling winds with music, which did melt / Into kind ears like softly opening showers, / To those who asked if beggar wanted bread.”
“And instantly from the depts of the black recesses behind the reredos of the altar there slid like slanting light-rays through the air a little creature, a tenuous grey bird, an embodied breeze, a flash of life. It settled, still minstreling its luted sibboleth, to a fluttering rest in the panting bosom of Areta.”
- To act as a minstrel; to entertain by playing a musical instrument, singing, etc.
“Crown me, therefore,—and minstrelling near to thy fanes, Bacchus, thickly-adorned with rosy chaplets will I dance with a full-bosomed maid.”
“[T]here are hotels in Kertch, the keepers of which bring over a band of musicians, singing men and singing women, especially the latter, every year for the amusement of [ship] masters, who, […] lavishly distribute bottles of champagne, and other delicacies, to these minstreling angels—women, and pay away their roubles as if they were coppers.”