minstrelsy

From Middle English minstralcie, from 13th century Anglo-Norman menestralsie, menestralcie, from Old French menestrel (“minstrel”), itself from Medieval Latin ministralis (“servant, jester, singer”), from Late Latin ministerialis (“imperial household officer, one having an official duty”), from the adjective ministerialis (“ministerial, servants”), from Latin ministerium (“service”).

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minstrelsy (countable and uncountable, plural minstrelsies)

1. The musical and other art and craft of a minstrel.
   • 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 86:

     Orfeo makes his way into this palace, and so charms the king with his minstrelsy, that he gives him back his wife.

   • 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 186:

     They, of course, would change, but not again could she; henceforth no music for her in the Bush birds' minstrelsy, no pleasure in rivalry with buttercups for the butterflies' kiss.

2. A group of minstrels.
3. Any similar modern group performing song and verse.
4. A collection of minstrel ballads.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:minstrelsy.

• minstrelry