minstrelsy

[min-struhl-see]

noun

1. the art or practice of a minstrel.

2. minstrels' songs, ballads, etc..

   a collection of Scottish minstrelsy.

minstrelsy

/ ˈmɪnstrəlsɪ /

noun

1. the art of a minstrel

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

3. a troupe of minstrels

Word History and Origins

Origin of minstrelsy¹

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

Example Sentences

“For example, the ‘Amistad’ story happened exactly at the time when minstrelsy was starting to become the principal form of entertainment,” Davis says.

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In a modern form of minstrelsy, these white musicians safely provided ‘Black’ music to white audiences.”

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In what I hope is meant to suggest the falseness of these stories, Brown pounds the pastiche in the songs so hard it borders on minstrelsy: hip-hop for the fixer; fiddle schmaltz for the pilgrims.

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From where I sit, the election looks like a kind of grotesque minstrelsy.

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But what was once the norm can now seem a kind of ableist minstrelsy, which this production attempts to sidestep by offering a Richard with no physical impairments at all.

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