banjo
[ban-joh]
- a musical instrument of the guitar family, having a circular body covered in front with tightly stretched parchment and played with the fingers or a plectrum.
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Origin of banjo
1730–40; compare Jamaican English banja, bonjour, bangil, Brazilian Portuguese banza; probably of African orig.; compare Kimbundu mbanza a plucked string instrument
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for banjo
Contemporary Examples
Well someone gave that kid a banjo and a Wi-Fi connection and told him to go to town.
In her down time, she plays the banjo in an all-girl band, Loose Gravel.
When he was 11, his father built him a banjo, at first fashioning the head out of groundhog hide.
Before Earl Scruggs, banjo players were not front men, but they were funny.
Earl Scruggs, Dead at 88, Pioneered a Banjo Style Imitated but Never EqualedMalcolm Jones
March 29, 2012
In a tradition that goes back to the days of the minstrel show, the banjo player doubled as a comedian.
Earl Scruggs, Dead at 88, Pioneered a Banjo Style Imitated but Never EqualedMalcolm Jones
March 29, 2012
Historical Examples
On a low couch piled with cushions lay Helen's mandolin and a banjo.
The Bacillus of BeautyHarriet Stark
He just missed running into Banjo on the Hog's Back by the skin of the teeth.
Chip, of the Flying UB. M. Bower
That evening old Barnaby brought his banjo around to the veranda.
Southern Lights and ShadowsVarious
Down the middle of the guitar there is a walled enclosure of the shape of a banjo.
The ManxmanHall Caine
Come up and bring that boy with his banjo, and we'll have a lot of fun.
Dave Porter At Bear CampEdward Stratemeyer
banjo
- a stringed musical instrument with a long neck (usually fretted) and a circular drumlike body overlaid with parchment, plucked with the fingers or a plectrum
- slang any banjo-shaped object, esp a frying pan
- Australian and NZ slang a long-handled shovel with a wide blade
- (modifier) banjo-shapeda banjo clock
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Word Origin
C18: variant (US Southern pronunciation) of bandore
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for banjo
n.
1764, American English, usually described as of African origin, probably akin to Bantu mbanza, an instrument resembling a banjo. The word has been influenced by colloquial pronunciation of bandore (1560s in English), a 16c. stringed instrument like a lute and an ancestor (musically and linguistically) of mandolin; from Portuguese bandurra, from Latin pandura, from Greek pandoura "three-stringed instrument." The origin and influence might be the reverse of what is here described.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
banjo
A stringed musical instrument, played by plucking (see strings). The banjo has a percussive sound and is much used in folk music and bluegrass music.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.