songster
(ˈsɒŋstə(r))
Forms: 1 sangystre, -estre, 4 sangester, 5 Sc. sangstere, 6 Sc. -(i)star; 4, 7– songster (7 -stare).
[See song n. and -ster. So MDu. sangster, Du. zangster.]
1. a. One who sings, a singer; orig., a female singer, a songstress.
| c 1000 ælfric Gram. ix. (Z.) 71 Hic cantor, þes sangere. Haec cantrix, þeos sangystre [v.r. sangestre]. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 4032 He was þe best..Of iogelours & of sangesters. 1382 Wyclif Ezek. xxvi. 13 Y shal make the multitude of thi songsters for to reste. 1497 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 368 Henrj of Hadingtoune the sangstere. 1534 Ibid. VI. 207 To George Contis, sangstar, to by him hois and doublet agane Pasche. 1624 Bedell Lett. iii. 58 The fault of the Italians: though they thinke themselues the onely songsters in the world. c 1670 Wood Life (O.H.S.) I. 274 Sylvanus Taylor,..fellow of All-soules; and violist and songster. 1713 Steele Guardian No. 23 ¶4 Thus..Corydon tells Alexis that he is the finest Songster of the Country. 1784 Cowper Task i. 498 The peasant too,..Himself a songster, is as gay as he. 1835 James Gipsy xi, Will, you are a songster, let us hear your voice. |
| attrib. 1614 J. Davies (Heref.) Ecl. Willy & Wernocke G iij b, To feed the Songster-swaines with Arts soot-meats. |
b. U.S. (See
quot. 1980.)
| 1925 Odum & Johnson Negro & his Songs i. 1 Anyone hearing him sing day in and day out, together with thousands of others like him, must agree..with the oft-repeated song claim of the ‘musicianer’, ‘music-physicianer’ and ‘songster’, that ‘All don't see me goin' to hear me sing.’ Not only does he sing, but he sings much and sings long with richness and variety. 1964 Amer. Folk Music Occasional i. 61 And if you describe the artist with accuracy, it will be with his own apt word: songster. The term suggests a musician who is both performer and inventor and harks back to the time when every Southern town had its songster, a man who was virtually in charge of the community's social life. 1968 P. Oliver Screening Blues ii. 82 The ‘songster’ generation of singers. 1970 ― Savannah Syncopators 7 The instrumental techniques and traditions of the blues singers, the songsters, the ragtime banjoists and guitarists. Ibid. 86 Many of the older blues singers and songsters recall playing for white functions. 1980 New Grove Dict. Music & Musicians XVII. 17/1 Songster, a black American musician of the post-Reconstruction era who performed a wide variety of ballads, dance-tunes, reels and minstrel songs, singing to his own banjo or guitar accompaniment. |
2. A poet; a writer of songs or verse.
| 1585 Jas. I Ess. Poesie (Arb.) 27 Homer, who a Songster bene, Albeit a beggar. a 1637 B. Jonson Underwoods lx. Wks. (Rtldg.) 706/2 Silk will draw some sneaking songster thither, It is a rhyming age, and verses swarm At every stall. 1743 Pol. Ballads (1860) II. 304 Each party's joke, Each trifling songster's sport. 1848 ‘L. Mariotti’ Italy II. vi. 214 Giusti may be a rival, but no imitator of the French songster [Béranger]. 1872 Spurgeon Treas. David Ps. lix. 14 Here verse six is repeated, as if the songster defied his foes. |
3. A bird that sings; a song-bird.
| 1700 Dryden Flower & Leaf 449 And either Songster holding out their Throats, And folding up their Wings renew'd their Notes. 1730–46 Thomson Autumn 972 Haply some widow'd songster pours his plaint. 1837 M. Donovan Dom. Econ. II. 143 The Skylark, a superior songster, is much sought after in most countries where it abounds. |
| attrib. 1783 Latham Gen. Synop. Birds II. i. 59 Songster Thrush..has a fine song. 1829 Griffith tr. Cuvier VI. 394 Songster Thrush,..Turdus Cantor. |