Other forms: minstrels
A minstrel was a travelling singer of the middle ages. A wandering minstrel, the minstrel's song, hire a minstrel.
He carried news as well as songs, which is part of why lords fed him. The word has a second and ugly nineteenth-century use, for white performers in blackface, and any modern use has to reckon with that history.
1nounminstrelA travelling singer of the middle ages.
“A wandering minstrel sang songs of love and battle in the castle hall.”
minstrel is a singer.
Old French menestrel meant a servant or entertainer, from Latin ministerialis, an official, from minister, a servant.
Proto-Indo-European
*mey-
Latin
ministerialis — official or retainer owing household and military service to a feudal lord, a ministerial or ministerialis
Old French
menestrel — artisan; servant; itinerant musician or poet; worker
Anglo-Norman
menestrel
Middle English
minstral
English, today
minstrel
Built from
The noun is derived from Middle English minstral, menestrel (“actor; juggler; mime; musician; singer; storyteller; (military) soldier playing a horn or trumpet as a signal”)menestral, menstrel, menstrelle, menstral, menstrale, menstrall, menstralle, menstrel, menstrell, menstrelle, minestral, minestrale, ministral, ministrele, minsterel, minstrale, minstrall, minstralle, minstrel, minstrelle, munstral, munstrel, munstrell, mynestral, mynistralle, mynsterel, mynstraell, mynstral, mynstrale, mynstrall, mynstralle, mynstrel, mynstrell, mynstrelle, mynystral, mynystrel, mynystrell, from Anglo-Norman menestrel menestral, minestral, ministral and Old French menestrel (“artisan; servant; itinerant musician or poet; worker”) manestrel, menesterel, menestral (modern French ménestrel (“minstrel”)), from Latin ministerialis (“official or retainer owing household and military service to a feudal lord, a ministerial or ministerialis”), from Latin ministerium (“employment, ministration; office of a minister, ministry; action or attendance by an inferior person such as a slave, service”) + -ālis. Ministerium is derived from minister (“accomplice; agent; aide; attendant; servant; waiter”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European mey- (“little, small”) + -yōs (“-er”) + -teros) + -ium. a doublet of ministerial and ministerialis. The verb is derived from the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA