minstrel means 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. It carries an Arena rating of 1829, earned across 22 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, minstrel ranks #1,441 of 17,116 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,332 of 17,115 for Most Vivid Words, #3,008 of 17,130 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #3,321 of 17,128 for Most Whimsical Words.
minstrel is pronounced /ˈmɪnstɹ(ə)l/.
Why “minstrel” is a great word
A medieval entertainer, originally a servant or functionary, who recited or sang poetry, often to musical accompaniment, and later, a performer in a racist 19th-century variety show featuring blackface. From Middle English minstral, from Anglo-Norman and Old French menestrel ('servant, itinerant musician'), from Late Latin ministerialis ('servant owing feudal service'), from Latin ministerium ('service') + -ālis (adjective-forming suffix). Unlike a 'bard,' with its specific Celtic lineage of lyrical and epic poetry, or a 'jester,' a court fool hired for antics, the minstrel was servant first—his song bound to duty, his art sharpened by survival. It is the solitary figure with a lute in a drafty hall, the carrier of news and legend between villages, and—in its grim, later transmutation—the grotesque caricature in burnt cork and garish clothes. The word began in service and song, and ended as a mask, tracing a path from the celebration of story to the tragedy of stolen voice.
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; waite
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.
- Any lyric poet, musician, or singer.
- 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).
- An amphetamine tablet, typically black, or black and white, in colour.
verb
- To play (a tune on a musical instrument); to sing (a song).e.g.“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.”
- To act as a minstrel; to entertain by playing a musical instrument, singing, etc.e.g.“Crown me, therefore,—and minstrelling near to thy fanes, Bacchus, thickly-adorned with rosy chaplets will I dance with a full-bosomed maid.”
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