Synonyms for minstrel

Grammar : Noun

Spell : min-struh l

Phonetic Transcription : ˈmɪn strəl

Top 10 synonyms for minstrel

Other synonyms for the word minstrel

Définition of minstrel

Origin : early 13c., from Old French menestrel "entertainer, poet, musician; servant, workman; good-for-nothing, rogue," from Medieval Latin ministralis "servant, jester, singer," from Late Latin ministerialem (nominative ministerialis) "imperial household officer, one having an official duty," from ministerialis (adj.) "ministerial," from Latin ministerium (see ministry). The connecting notion is via the jester, etc., as a court position.
Specific sense of "musician" developed in Old French, but in English until 16c. the word was used of anyone (singers, storytellers, jugglers, buffoons) whose profession was to entertain patrons. Only in 18c. was the word limited, in a historical sense, to "medieval singer of heroic or lyric poetry who accompanied himself on a stringed instrument." Reference to blackface music acts in U.S. is from 1843.

noun ballad singer
noun entertainer

Example sentences :

"I trust that I am a better bowman than a minstrel," said he.
Extract from : « The White Company » by Arthur Conan Doyle

The harp of the minstrel is untruly touched, if his own glory is all that it records.
Extract from : « Modern Painters Volume I (of V) » by John Ruskin

The minstrel, like the fighters, revels in hard knocks and rough jests.
Extract from : « The Balladists » by John Geddie

She seemed the minstrel of her race mourning for a vanished world.
Extract from : « They of the High Trails » by Hamlin Garland

Cappen Varra, minstrel of Croy, clung to the bench and sighed.
Extract from : « The Valor of Cappen Varra » by Poul William Anderson

Where is our once charming acrobat—our minstrel of muscular music?
Extract from : « Adventures in the Arts » by Marsden Hartley

But the minstrel had another name, wonderful as the one I have already told to you.
Extract from : « Stories from the Ballads » by Mary MacGregor

All festal occasions in Circassian life are enlivened by the presence of the minstrel.
Extract from : « Life of Schamyl » by John Milton Mackie

But I have been worried ever since that minstrel crowd has been gathering at the tan-yard.
Extract from : « Watch Yourself Go By » by Al. G. Field

When the minstrel troupe arrived, hundreds were at the depot.
Extract from : « Watch Yourself Go By » by Al. G. Field

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019