minstrel, n.
(ˈmɪnstrəl)
Forms: α. 3 menestral, (pl. menestraus); β. 4 mynystrel, ministrele, minestrale, 4–5 mynystral, 5 mynistralle, 6 mynystrell, mynnystrelle, (7 arch. ministrel); γ. 4 menstrelle, 4–5 menstrale, -alle, 4–6, 7 Sc. menstral, 5 Sc. menstraille, 5–6 menstrell, 6 menstrall; δ. 4 mynstraell, -tral(e, (munstral), 4–5 minstral(e, mynstralle, 4–6 mynstrel(le, minstralle, 5 minstrall, 5–6 minstrelle, 6 minstril, mynstrell, 6–7 minstrell, 7 minstrill, 6– minstrel.
[a. OF. menestral, -terel, ministral, -terel (F. ménestrel) = Pr. menestral officer, person employed, attendant, musician:—late L. ministeriāl-em one having an official duty, f. ministerium: see ministry.
OF. had a synon. menestrier (mod.F. ménétrier village musician), f. menestrel with alteration of suffix. The It. ministrello, Sp. ministril, Pg. ministrel, are formed after Fr.]
† 1. gen. A servant having a special function. Obs. rare—1.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 84 An oðer half, nimeð nu ȝeme of hwuche two mesteres þeos two menestraus [sc. the flatterer and the backbiter] serueð hore louerde, þe deofle of helle. |
2. a. In early use (i.e. down to the end of the 16th c.), a general designation for any one whose profession was to entertain his patrons with singing, music, and story-telling, or with buffoonery or juggling. In modern romantic and historical use commonly with narrowed and elevated application: A mediæval singer or musician, esp. one who sang or recited, to the accompaniment of his own playing on a stringed instrument, heroic or lyric poetry composed by himself or others; spec. one of the Old English period.
The use of the word in romantic poetry and fiction has so coloured its meaning that the application to a mere jester, mountebank, or conjuror, originally common, would now seem inappropriate.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 5509 Menestrel he was god ynou & harpare in eche poynte. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. Prol. 33 And summe Murþhes to maken as Munstrals cunne. ? a 1366 Chaucer Rom. Rose 764 Ther mightest thou see these floutours, Minstrales, and eek Iogelours. c 1386 ― Sir Thopas 134 Do come he seyde my Mynstrales And geestours for to tellen tales Anon in myn Armynge. 14.. Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 693 Hic prestigiator, mynstralle. 1423 in T. Sharp Diss. Pageants Coventry (1825) 207 Thei have retained Matthew Ellerton..& John Trumpor Mynstrells as for the Cite of Coventry. c 1440 Alphabet of Tales ccclvi. 245 He saw mynstrallis & iogullurs. Ibid., He said, hym had levur clethe Criste þer-with, or pure men, þan for to giff þaim to mynstrallis, for, he said, it was no noder to giff to mynstrals bod for to offyr to fendis. 1508 in Lysons Envir. Lond. (1792) I. 226 To the menstorell upon May-day, 0 0 4. 1535 Coverdale Matt. ix. 23 When Iesus came into the rulers house, and sawe the minstrels [so 1611] and the people raginge. 1539 Cromwell in Merriman Life & Lett. (1902) II. 236 Item youe shall allowe to Mr. Brereton and Mr. Gryffith their chaplaynes and minstralles. 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 25 Al the musicions & minstrels..playe on theyr instrumentes. 1559 Abp. Hethe in Strype Ann. Ref. (1824) I. App. vi. 403 Kinge Davyd..placed himselfe amongest the mynystrells. 1597 Maldon, Essex Liber C. 146 b, The said John Cooke..shall..the said John Hill.. instructe..in the..arte misterie and facultie of a minstrell. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Minstrel, a Player on the Violin; a Fidler, or Piper. 1767 Percy Ess. Anc. Eng. Minstrels 9 The privileges and honours which were so lavishly bestowed upon the northern scalds, were not wholly with-held from the Anglo-Saxon Minstrels. 1768 Beattie (title) The Minstrel. 1805 Scott (title) The Lay of the Last Minstrel. 1839 T. Wright Ess. Lit. & Learning under Anglo-Saxons 2 All literary genius centres on one person, the minstrel, who equally composed and sang. 1846 Wright Ess. Mid. Ages I. ii. 68 The [Anglo-Norman] minstrel shows himself everywhere a bitter satirist upon ecclesiastics. 1850 O. Winslow Inner Life vi. 181 The banquet is ready and the minstrels are tuning their harps. 1892 J. Earle Deeds of Beowulf 136 Rieger..understands that the minstrel did not merely narrate, but improvised. 1928 W. W. Lawrence Beowulf & Epic Trad. 46 The lines at the beginning [of Widsith] introducing the minstrel, and those at the end glorifying his profession. 1951 D. Whitelock Audience of Beowulf 77 The poet, if he had not wished, was not forced to make the minstrel sing of the Creation. 1966 E. G. Stanley Continuations & Beginnings 129 Sometimes a minstrel working in the oral-formulaic tradition coined a phrase, for every phrase must have been new before it grew old. |
¶ b. Used derisively with pun on minister.
| 1589 Nashe Almond for Parrat 8 b, 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. |
3. transf. Used poet. or rhetorically for a musician, singer, or poet.
| 1718 Prior Solomon ii. 71 Music's force can..make..the lynx forget His wrath to man, and lick the minstrel's feet. 1819 Wordsw. To Dr. Wordsw. 1 The Minstrels played their Christmas tune To-night beneath my cottage-eaves. 1831 ― Yarrow Revisited i. 8, I stood, looked, listened, and with Thee, Great Minstrel of the Border! 1839 ― Th. on Banks Nith 56 Sweet Mercy! to the gates of Heaven This Minstrel lead, his sins forgiven. a 1881 Rossetti House of Life ix, Behold this minstrel is unknown; Bid him depart, for I am minstrel here. |
4. Chiefly in pl. and with prefixed defining word, as Christy minstrel, Negro minstrel, nigger minstrels: The designation assumed by certain bands of public entertainers in the U.S. and subsequently also in England, who, with blacked faces and wearing grotesque costumes, performed interludes representing Negro life in the southern states, with songs and music ostensibly of Negro origin.
| 1843 in G. C. D. Odell Ann. N.Y. Stage (1928) IV. 668 The Ethiopian Serenaders, or Boston Minstrels. 1846 Illustr. London News 24 Jan. 61/2 The Ethiopian serenaders. A party of American minstrels..commenced..a series of concerts. 1864, 1871 [see Negro 3]. 1873 [see Christy]. 1904 Daily Chron. 29 Mar. 3/6 April 9 has been fixed for the last performance of the Mohawk Moore and Burgess Minstrels at St. James's Hall. |
5. slang. (See quots.)
| 1967 M. M. Glatt et al. Drug Scene 115 Minstrel (black and white), Durophet. 1971 E. E. Landy Underground Dict. 133 Minstrel, 12.5 mg. capsule of an amphetamine and a sedative. |
6. attrib.
| 1715–20 Pope Iliad xxiv. 81 This Minstrel God,..Stood proud to Hymn, and tune his youthful Lyre. 1767 Percy Ess. Anc. Minstrels in Reliq. (1794) I. p. liv, The old Minstrel-ballads are in the northern dialect. 1810 Scott Lady of L. vi. xiv, Free from thy minstrel-spirit glanced, Fling me the picture of the fight. 1813 ― Trierm. i. xix, The attributes of those high days Now only live in minstrel-lays. 1865 Chicago Tribune 10 Apr. 1 Buckley and Budd's minstrel house is in blast. 1870 O. Logan Before Footlights 414 A clever actor..who wrote a burlesque..for a minstrel show. 1885 W. B. Yeats Island of Statues ii. iii, in Dublin Univ. Rev. July 139/2 He who hath the halcyon's wing As flaming minstrel-word upon his crest. 1947 A. Einstein Mus. Romantic Era xvii. 331 Of his [sc. S. C. Foster's] songs, Oh! Susanna was one of the oldest (1848) and was most widely circulated by the ‘minstrel shows’. 1949 Radio Times 15 July 18/3 A black-faced minstrel show with bones, tambourines, corner men, stump speech. 1975 Listener 3 Apr. 454/3 At the time of the Civil War, the minstrel show became less complex in its treatment of Negro life. |
Hence ˈminstrel v. trans., to sing of, celebrate in song. ˈminstreless, a female minstrel. ˈminstrelling vbl. n., the performance of music. † ˈminstrelship, (a) minstrelsy, the performance of music; (b) (with possessive pronoun) the personality of a minstrel.
| 1471 in T. Sharp Diss. Pageants Coventry (1825) 35 It' paid to the waytes for mynstrelship..vjs. a 1578 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 381 With singing and danceing, minstrelling and playing. 1647 Haddington Presbyt. Rec. in Baron Crt. of Stitchill (1905) Introd. 35 Profane minstrellings in time of dinner or supper tends to great debauchery. 1817 Blackw. Mag. I. 169 No monument tells, 'mid the wilderness green, Where the minstreless lies of the Border the last. 1822 T. L. Peacock Maid Marian xvi. 218 I'll knock your musical noddles together... That will be a new tune for your minstrelships. Ibid. 219 Touch thou shalt not: my minstrelship defies thee. 1873 Leland Egypt. Sketch Bk. 127 Such poets as Bayard Taylor, who once minstrelled an Arab's horse. |