Also (earlier) banjore, banjer. [A corruption of BANDORE, through Negro slave pronunciation, banjō·re, banjō·.] A stringed musical instrument, played with the fingers, having a head and neck like a guitar, and a body like a tambourine; a modification of the bandore.
[1764. Grainger, Sugar-Cane, IV. To the wild banshaw’s melancholy sound.]
c. 1790. Dibdin, Sea songs (title), The Negro and his Banjer.
1801. Mar. Edgeworth, Belinda, II. xviii. 7. ‘What is this, mamma?—It is not a guitar, is it?’ ‘No, my dear, it is called a banjore; it is an African instrument, of which the negroes are particularly fond.’
a. 1845. Negro Melodies (in Bartlett). Dey dance all night to de ole banjo, Wid a cornstalk fiddle, and a shoe-string bow.
1846. Punch, 26 Sept., 126. The music-master of the regiment has been sent with a cornet-a-piston and a banjo to play to Queen Pomare. Ibid. (1847), 27 Feb., 94. The present is the age of bones and banjos.
b. attrib., as in banjo-player, -playing.
1847. Punch, 27 Feb., 94. Bone and banjo minstrels.
1865. Sat. Rev., 4 Feb., 134/1. A converted banjo-player. Ibid. Banjo-playing being … a negro form of fetish-worship.
