Jongleur
[JONG-gler]
Part of speech: noun
Origin: French, 18th century
1.
An itinerant minstrel.
Examples of Jongleur in a sentence
"After high school, Travis hit the road with his guitar as a modern-day jongleur."
"Our town is so small, we don’t get jongleurs passing through, let alone an annual fair."
About Jongleur
“Jongleur” is a loanword from French, in which it means “juggler.”
Did you Know?
While “jongleur” is a literal translation of “juggler,” the word in medieval England referred to a lower class of traveling minstrel. A jongleur was not always a family-friendly character, and sometimes sang rude numbers, but in general he played the role of a party-starter who livened people’s spirits. Jongleurs often didn’t write the songs and jokes they performed, but learned them from the troubadours who wrote songs. Because they were working with secondhand material, a jongleur often performed additional acts, such as juggling (as the name implies), acrobatic feats, or sleight of hand.
