Minstrel

Noun

 * 1)  A medieval traveling entertainer who would sing and recite poetry, often to his own musical accompaniment.
 * 2) One of a troupe of entertainers who wore black makeup (blackface) to present a variety show of song, dance and banjo music; now considered racist.

Quotations

 * 1885 — Gilbert & Sullivan, The Mikado
 * A wandering minstrel I —
 * A thing of shreds and patches,
 * Of ballads, songs and snatches,

Synonyms

 * bard, folk singer, troubadour

Thesaurus
Broadway musical, Meistersinger, Parnassian, Singspiel, arch-poet, artist, artiste, ballad maker, ballad opera, ballad singer, balladeer, balladist, balladmonger, ballet, ballet divertissement, bard, beat poet, bucoliast, chorus show, comedy ballet, comic opera, concert artist, dance drama, elegist, epic poet, executant, fili, folk singer, folk-rock singer, gleeman, grand opera, idyllist, imagist, interpreter, jongleur, laureate, librettist, light opera, lyric drama, maestro, major poet, maker, minnesinger, minor poet, minstrel show, minstrelsy, modernist, music drama, music maker, musical, musical comedy, musical stage, musical theater, musician, occasional poet, odist, opera, opera ballet, opera bouffe, opera buffa, operetta, pastoral poet, pastoralist, performer, player, poet, poet laureate, poetress, rhapsode, rhapsodist, satirist, scald, scop, serenader, singer, skald, soloist, song-and-dance act, song-play, sonneteer, street singer, strolling minstrel, symbolist, troubador, troubadour, trouveur, trovatore, tunester, vers libriste, vers-librist, virtuosa, virtuoso, wait, wandering minstrel

Etymology
menestrel: from menestral: from Latin ministerialis: from ministerium: from minister:. More at.

Translations

 * Czech:
 * Finnish: minstreli, kiertelevä laulaja
 * Portuguese:


 * Romanian:
 * Spanish: