Meaning of strumstrum | Babel Free

Definitions

Any stringed musical instrument that is played with the fingertips, especially one considered to be foreign.

archaic, derogatory, often

Examples

“[…] in the Churches belonging to Indian Towns they have⟳ all sorts of Vizards, and strange antick Dresses both for Men and Women, and abundance of Musical Hautboys and Strumstrums. The Strumstrum is made somewhat like⟳ a Cittern; most of those that the Indians use⟳ are made of a large Goad cut⟳ in the midst, and a thin Board⟳ laid over the hollow, and which is fastned to the Sides: this serves for the Belly; over which the Strings are placed.”

“1728, George Carleton (attributed to Daniel Defoe), The Memoirs of an English Officer, London: E. Symon, p. 279, Their Guitars, if not their Sole, are their darling Instruments, and what they most delight in: Tho’ in my Opinion our English Sailors are not much amiss in giving them the Title of Strum Strums.”

“[The orator’s] cry⟳ […] was a species of musick to the mob, as agreeable as the sound⟳ of a bagpipe to a mountaineer of North Britain, or the strum-strum to the swarthy natives of Angola.”

“Banjo Byron that twangs the strum-strum there—”

“They sent ashore for some Sing-Song girls, which, with the fellers that brought them, all night made the cabin thick with cigarettes and the stringing of a strum-strum.”

CEFR level