banjo
(ˈbændʒəʊ)
Also (earlier) banjore, banjer.
[A corruption of bandore, through Negro slave pronunciation, banˈjōre, banˈjō.]
1. a. A stringed musical instrument, played with the fingers, having a head and neck like a guitar, and a body like a tambourine; a modification of the bandore.
| [1764 Grainger Sugar-Cane iv, To the wild banshaw's melancholy sound.] 1774 P. V. Fithian Jrnl. (1900) 103 In the School-Room,..several Negroes & Ben & Harry are playing on a Banjo & dancing. c 1790 Dibdin Sea-songs (title), The Negro and his Banjer. 1801 M. Edgeworth Belinda II. xviii. 7 ‘What is this, mamma?—It is not a guitar, is it?’ ‘No, my dear, it is called a banjore; it is an African instrument, of which the negroes are particularly fond.’ 1801 Port Folio (Philad.) I. 270 (Th.), The sound of Banneker's banjo would be as tuneable as Gallatin's spoken French. 1836 Southern Lit. Messenger II. 162, I found a crowd of negroes..dancing..to the music of a banjo. a 1845 Negro Melodies (in Bartlett), Dey dance all night to de ole banjo, Wid a cornstalk fiddle, and a shoe-string bow. 1846 Punch 26 Sept. 126 The music-master of the regiment has been sent with a cornet-a-piston and a banjo to play to Queen Pomare. 1847 Ibid. 27 Feb. 94 The present is the age of bones and banjos. |
b. With distinguishing term.
| 1934 S. R. Nelson All about Jazz ii. 53 The banjolin was..soon discarded in favour of the Tenor Banjo. 1961 A. Birch in A. Baines Mus. Instruments vii. 182 For the violinist who wished to play some more suitable instrument in the dance-band of the twenties there was the ‘tenor-banjo’ tuned in fifths. |
2. a. transf. Applied to contrivances of the shape of a banjo: see quots.
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Banjo, the brass frame in which the screw-propeller of a steamer works, and is hung for hoisting the screw on deck... The banjo is essential to lifting the screw. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 147/2 (Railways) The enclosed disc signal, commonly called a ‘banjo’, is a circular box..with a glass-covered opening, behind which a red disc is shown to indicate stop. 1964 Gloss. Letterpress Rotary Print. Terms (B.S.I.) 9 Banjo, the end adjusting duct screw. |
b. spec. A shovel; an entrenching tool. Chiefly Austral. and N.Z.
| 1918 N.Z. Exped. Force Chron. 30 Aug. 57/1 We are still wielding the old ‘Banjo’ in good style. 1925 in Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words. 1931 ‘Dean Stiff’ Milk & Honey Route 199 Banjo, a short-handled shovel. 1933 Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Nov. 21/1 With banjo, pick and barrow I toil. 1954 Coast to Coast 67 All swung their banjos so hard that production costs dropped. 1960 N.Z. Listener 21 Oct. 7/3 ‘It's interesting work—anything's better than the banjo.’ ‘The banjo?’ ‘A shovel. Some people call it a Mexican side-loader.’ 1966 T. H. Sheppard Dict. Railway Slang (ed. 2) 3 Banjo, fireman's shovel. |
3. attrib., as in banjo-player, banjo-playing; with the meaning ‘banjo-shaped’, as banjo axle, banjo union; banjo-clock U.S., a clock in a case shaped like a banjo; banjo-frame (see quot. 1888).
| 1847 Punch 27 Feb. 94 Bone and banjo minstrels. 1865 Sat. Rev. 4 Feb. 134/1 A converted banjo-player. Ibid., Banjo-playing being..a negro form of fetish-worship. 1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin., Bow Connecting-Rod..or Banjo Frame, a form of connecting-rod employed in steam pumps. 1903 F. C. Morse Furniture of Olden Time xi. 328 Simon Willard patented in 1802 an ‘improved time⁓piece’ which Mr. Howard says is the clock now known as the ‘banjo’ clock from its shape. 1922 Autocar 10 Nov. 962 A vertical banjo type of back axle. Ibid. 982 A neat banjo axle. 1958 Times 10 Oct. 8/3 He had found a leak in the banjo union of the cylinder [sc. of a car]. Ibid., He had tightened the banjo union nut one-sixth of a turn. 1959 Engineering 6 Feb. 187/3 The air from the compressor..then passes through a banjo type junction. |