Etymologically
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banjo

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈbæn.dʒəʊ/[1]
  • US: /ˈbæn.d͡ʒoʊ/[1]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.[2][3][4] The American Heritage Dictionary, Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com take it as probably of African origin and compare Kimbundu mbanza, a plucked stringed instrument;[5][6][7] Barnhart suggests a Bantu language of West Africa and also compares Luba-Kasai mbanzi.[3][8] The Oxford dictionaries, Collins, Hoad, Klein, Skeat and Weekley instead take it as an alteration of bandore, a 16th-century lute-like instrument, in the pronunciation of African slaves in America.[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary allow both, with bandore influencing an African word,[2][5] while Etymonline admits that the influence may have been the other way round;[2] Ayto thinks mbanza the more plausible immediate source, altered by English speakers who knew bandore.[4] Barnhart finds it hard to establish whether the word came from a mispronunciation of bandore, but notes that observers such as Jefferson probably equated the two instruments.[3] The name of the older instrument comes from Portuguese bandurra, from Latin pandūra,[2] from Ancient Greek πανδοῦρα (pandoûra, “three-stringed lute”), the source also of mandolin.[4][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

The stringed instrument: Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1739,[6] and Dictionary.com to 1730–40.[7] The OED and Etymonline begin in 1764, with James Grainger's poem The Sugar-Cane;[9][2] Barnhart gives 1774 for banjo and 1764 for the earlier spelling banshaw.[3][8] The early spellings varied: banjore, banjer, banshaw, and banjar in Thomas Jefferson.[5][2][10][14] The citations from 1764 to 1845 connect the word with the music of Black slaves in America.[3]

Semantic evolution

From the shape of its round body and long neck the name passed to various objects (1867, in the Sailor's Word-book),[9] and in Australian and New Zealand slang to a shovel or entrenching tool (1918).[9][10][12] Slang also used it for a frying pan,[12] a bedpan and, first in Australia, a shoulder of mutton (1895).[17] In modern British slang the verb banjo means to force a door or to hit or beat up.[17] The banjo clock (1891) was named for its shape.[2] From 1934 the OED records the word with a qualifying word naming a type of instrument,[9] such as the four-stringed tenor banjo played with a pick.[6]

Timeline

  • 1739 – the stringed instrument.[6]
  • 1764 – the instrument, in Grainger's Sugar-Cane; also spelled banshaw.[9][2][3]
  • 1774 – the spelling banjo.[3]
  • 1867 – an object shaped like a banjo.[9]
  • 1891 – banjo clock.[2]
  • 1895 – Australian slang, a shoulder of mutton.[17]
  • 1918 – Australian and New Zealand slang, a shovel.[9]
  • 1934 – with a word naming a type of banjo.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A stringed instrument of the guitar family with a long fretted neck and a round body like a drum or tambourine covered with stretched parchment or plastic, usually with five strings plucked or strummed with the fingers or a plectrum: He played the banjo on the porch every evening.[6][12][9]
  2. A four-stringed banjo with a larger body, played with a pick; a tenor banjo.[6]
  3. Something shaped like a banjo, such as a frying pan or a part of a machine; also used as a modifier: a banjo clock.[12][6][9]
  4. (Australia and New Zealand, slang) A long-handled shovel with a wide blade.[12][9][10]

Verb

  1. (British slang) To hit or beat up; to force open a door or window.[17]

Word family

  • banjoist
  • banjo clock
  • bandore
  • mandolin
  • mandola
  • pandora

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  14. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  15. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  16. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  17. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com