Definition of "minstrel"
minstrel
noun
plural minstrels
(historical) 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.
Quotations
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, […]Used as an insulting pun for minister (“person who is trained to preach, to perform religious ceremonies, and to afford pastoral care at a Protestant church”).
1589?, Cutbert Curry-knave [pseudonym; Thomas Nashe], An Almond for a Parrat, or Cutbert Curry-knaues Almes. […], [London: […] Eliot’s Court Press]; republished as An Almond for a Parrot; being a Reply to Martin Mar-prelate. […] (Puritan Discipline Tracts), London: John Petheram, […], 1846, page 26
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.
1669, William Gurnall, “A Short Point from the Connexion of This Piece of Armour with the First; Righteousness with Truth”, in The Christian in Compleat Armour. Or, A Treatise, of the Saints VVar against the Devil; , page 77, column 1
[page xv] The Minstrels ſeem to have been the genuine ſucceſſors of the ancient Bards, who united the arts of Poetry and Muſic, and ſung verſes to the harp, of their own compoſing. […] [page xvi] [T]he Minſtrels continued a diſtinct order of men, and got their livelihood by ſinging verſes to the harp, at the houſes of the great.
1765, Thomas Percy, compiler, “An Essay on the Ancient English Minstrels”, in Reliques of Ancient English Poetry: […], volume I, London: […] J[ames] Dodsley […], pages xv–xvi
But louder still the clamour grew, / And louder still the minstrels blew, / When, from beneath the greenwood tree, / Rode forth Lord Howard's chivalry; […]
1805, Walter Scott, “Canto Fourth”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […], stanza XVI, page 107
The Minstrel-Boy to the war is gone, / In the ranks of death you'll find him; / His father's sword he has girded on, / And his wild harp slung behind him.
1813, Thomas Moore (lyricist), John Stevenson (composer), “The Minstrel-Boy”, in A Selection of Irish Melodies. […], number 5, London: J. Power, […], verse I, page 30
The hero of the verses, Adam Glen, who composed the air to which they are sung, was a well-known wandering minstrel, long a favourite in every farmer's ha', village, and fair, in the west of Angus, and in eastern Forfarshire.
1901, “Pawkie Adam Glen”, in Robert Ford, editor, Vagabond Songs and Ballads of Scotland: With Many Old and Familiar Melodies […] (Second Series), Paisley, Renfrewshire, London: Alexander Gardner […], page 172
(by extension)
(chiefly poetic) Any lyric poet, musician, or singer.
Quotations
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."
1881, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “The House of Life. Sonnet IX. Passion and Worship.”, in Ballads and Sonnets, London: Ellis and White, […], part I (Youth and Change), page 171
(by extension, slang) An amphetamine tablet, typically black, or black and white, in colour.
Quotations
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).
1970, SAMT, page 613
Roger had always been ... libidinous, aren't we all? ... but his powerful body began to writhe with the unearthly flexions of the Kundalini spirit, and after swallowing a couple of nigger minstrels Lesley had given him he spent most of one Friday morning house meeting sitting cross-legged, clutching his crotch and chanting, My dick is God, God is my dick ... over and over again, until Zack had though he would stick my fingers in his eyes, my thumb in his third one, and tear his bloody head off! – Skinning up and smoking a little shit – this Zack hadn't minded, and with two or three residents, in the right surroundings and carefully guided, he believed LSD could have therapeutic benefits.
2014, Will Self, Shark
verb
third-person singular simple present minstrels, present participle minstreling or minstrelling, simple past and past participle minstreled or minstrelled
(transitive) To play (a tune on a musical instrument); to sing (a song).
Quotations
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.
1858, J[ohn] F[razer] Corkan, An Hour Ago: Or Time in Dreamland. A Mystery, London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts, page 93
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.
1896, M[atthew] P[hipps] Shiel, “Part II—Shape III: Phorfor”, in Shapes in the Fire: Being a Mid-winter-night’s Entertainment in Two Parts and an Interlude (The Keynotes Series; 29), London: John Lane, […]; Boston, Mass.: Roberts Bros., page 276
has lead [sic] to the perception that black [Canadian] writing, minstreling the pioneer mythologies of survival, simply records the struggle of (West Indian) immigrants against a cold, white, bitterly racist Canada.
1997 spring–summer, Peter Hudson, “Editor’s Note: In the Country of the Snow Blind”, in West Coast Line: A Journal of Contemporary Writing and Criticism, volume 31, number 1, Burnaby, B.C.: Department of English, Simon Fraser University, page 5; quoted in George Elliott Clarke, “Embarkation: Discovering Africa-Canadian Literature”, in Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature, Toronto, Ont., Buffalo, N.Y.: University of Toronto Press, 2002, note 5, page 19
(intransitive) To act as a minstrel; to entertain by playing a musical instrument, singing, etc.
Quotations
Crown me, therefore,—and minstrelling near to thy fanes, Bacchus, thickly-adorned with rosy chaplets will I dance with a full-bosomed maid.
1830, Anacreon, “Ode V. On the Rose.”, in T. W. C. Edwards, transl., Τα του Ανακρεοντος του Τηιου Μελη = The Odes of Anacreon the Teian Bard, Literally Translated into English Prose; […], London: […] [J. M‘Gowan and Son] for W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, […], page 22
[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.
1872 March 26, Peter Barrow, “Correspondence. Lightening Ships over Yenicalee Bar.”, in The Nautical Magazine. A Journal of Papers on Subjects Connected with Maritime Affairs, volume XLI (New Series), London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co. […]; and J. D. Potter, […], published June 1872, page 492
[T]he three of us will set forth from this fortress of mighty stone and like troubadours of old we will go a-minstreling from village to village!
1921, Al Jennings, “Methods of O. Henry; His Promotion; the Singing of Sally Castleton; O. Henry’s Indifference; the Explanation”, in Through the Shadows with O. Henry, New York, N.Y.: The H. K. Fly Company, page 185
Cutwolf was not just acting the troubadour, the jongleur, the travelling minstrel, he was also Beauchamp's spy. […] Once he'd finished minstrelling, he would invite others to make their contribution about life along the alleyways of Dowgate and the surrounding wards. Everyone was eager to participate and, in anticipation during the day, garner as much tittle-tattle and gossip as possible.
2012, Paul Doherty, “The Physician’s Tale”, in The Midnight Man: The Physician’s Tale of Mystery and Murder as He Goes on a Pilgrimage from London to Canterbury, Sutton, Surrey: Crème de la Crime, Severn House Publishers, part 5, page 138
But to come to a sick world like Burma, as a meteoric Kulturträger [culture carrier], minstrelling about the advantages of freedom over slavery, is an imposture, a Schweinerei, [disgrace] with Germanic overtones.
2015, Vincent Giroud, “The Rasputin Years”, in Nicolas Nabokov: A Life in Freedom and Music, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press