minstrel
n. countablen. a person who sings and plays music for an audience, often telling stories or jokes. In the past, this word was used for traveling musicians who performed in medieval Europe.
n. a person who performs music and poetry, typically in a public or courtly setting. Historically associated with medieval and Renaissance Europe, the term now carries a literary or archaic tone.
The minstrel played a lute and sang a ballad about the king.
In the medieval village, the local minstrel was the only person who could keep the children entertained with stories of knights and dragons.
The poet's work was often performed by a wandering minstrel, whose ability to memorize and recite hundreds of lines of verse was considered a remarkable feat of the oral tradition.
The noun is derived from Middle English minstral, menestrel (“actor; juggler; mime; musician; singer; storyteller; (military) soldier playing a horn or trumpet as a signal”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman menestrel [and other forms] and Old French menestrel (“artisan; servant; itinerant musician or poet; worker”) [and other forms] (modern French ménestrel (“minstrel”)), from Late Latin ministerialis (“official or retainer owing household and military service to a feudal lord, a ministerial or ministerialis”), from Latin ministerium (“employment, ministration; office of a minister, ministry; action or attendance by an inferior person such as a slave, service”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives). Ministerium is derived from minister (“accomplice; agent; aide; attendant; servant; waiter”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European mey- (“little, small”) + -teros (contrastive or oppositional suffix forming adjectives)) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns). Doublet of ministerial and ministerialis. The verb is derived from the noun.