minstrelsy

American  

[min-struhl-see] / ˈmɪn strəl si /

noun

1. the art or practice of a minstrel.

2. minstrels' songs, ballads, etc..

   a collection of Scottish minstrelsy.

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minstrelsy British  

/ ˈmɪnstrəlsɪ /

noun

1. the art of a minstrel

2. the poems, music, or songs of a minstrel

3. a troupe of minstrels

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Etymology

Origin of minstrelsy

1275–1325; Middle English minstralcie (< Anglo-French menestralsie ) < Anglo-Latin ministralcia, menestralcia. See minstrel, -cy

Example Sentences

Ashley Clark, a critic and the author of Facing Blackness: Media and Minstrelsy in Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, said the inclusion of King’s film should be celebrated, cautiously.

From The Guardian • Sep. 7, 2020

Fifteen years ago, the rock critic Robert Christgau published a survey-of-the-literature essay called “In Search of Jim Crow: Why Postmodern Minstrelsy Studies Matter,” in The Believer.

From The New Yorker • May 22, 2019

According to Eric Lott, author of “Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class,” blackface is defined as a practice in which white people “caricature blacks for sport and profit.”

From Salon • Oct. 8, 2015

He dug up and popularized ancient ballads and legends, versifying whole sections of them in The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border and the Lay of the Last Minstrel while galloping about in cavalry maneuvers.

From Time Magazine Archive

First published in the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, ii.

From English and Scottish Ballads (volume 3 of 8) by Various