Dictionary

songster en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˈsɒŋstɚ/ (General-American)

Etymology

From Middle English songster, sangester, sangstere, from Old English sangestre (“a female singer; songstress”), equivalent to song + -ster. Cognate with Scots sangstar (“singer; songster”). Compare also West Frisian sjongster (“singer; female singer; vocalist”).

Meanings

1. A man who sings songs, especially as a profession; a male singer.
   • In the leading article in this week's Publishers' Weekly a poet utters the complaints and defines the encouragements to be found in a materialistic world by its unthanked songsters. 1932 April 9, Isidor Schneider, “Hard Luck Of Poets”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 11 Feb 2026:
2. An adult chorister in the Salvation Army.
   • A member of a Salvation Army family, she had been a songster accompanying the band around the streets of Chelmsford where she lived with her parents. 2012, Kevin Turton, Northamptonshire Murders, page 13:
   • On a later occasion he returned to the theme of keeping the individuality of Salvation Army music, and resisting the temptation for songster brigades to imitate chapel and mission choirs. 2011, Gordon Cox, The Musical Salvationist, page 173:
3. A male songbird.
   • The woodcock, the snipe, and other nocturnal birds were all gone to rest; but the merry songsters of the wood now filled the air with their jubilee; the nutcracker began his monotonous clattering, the chaffinches and the wrens sang high in the sky, the blackcock scolded and blustered loudly, the thrush sang his mocking songs and libellous ditties about everybody, but became occasionally a little sentimental and warbled gently and bashfully some tender stanzas. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 89:
4. (formal) One who writes songs.
5. (US) A book of songs; songbook.
   • Because the Jew was often compelled to sing and dance to a fixed Mah Yafit melody at the wild orgies of the paritzim (wealthy Polish landowners), many deliberately discontinued singing Mah Yafit, thus causing the text to be removed from numerous Siddurim and songsters in the early 1900s. 1996, Macy Nulman, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Prayer, page 234:

Forms

Deriveds

songstress

Translations (43)

pl pieśniarz (man who sings songs) · fr chanteur (man who sings songs) · pl śpiewnik (songbook, book of songs) · tr muganni (man who sings songs) · la cantator (man who sings songs) · sh пјева̀ч (man who sings songs) · es cantante (man who sings songs) · pl pieśniarz w Armii Zbawienia (Salvation Army chorister) · pl autor tekstów piosenek (one who writes songs) · cy cantor (man who sings songs) · bg певе́ц (man who sings songs) · hu dalnok (man who sings songs) · tr hanende (man who sings songs) · nl songster (Salvation Army chorister) · bg песнопойка (songbook, book of songs) · gd fear-seinn (man who sings songs) · pl piewca (man who sings songs) · hu énekes (man who sings songs) · pl pieśniarka (man who sings songs) · tr şantör (man who sings songs) · pt cantor (man who sings songs) · nb sanger (man who sings songs) · uk пісня́р (one who writes songs) · bg мъжка пойна птица (male songbird) · da sanger (man who sings songs) · pl pieśniarka w Armii Zbawienia (Salvation Army chorister) · it cantante (man who sings songs) · ja 歌手 (man who sings songs) · ru пе́сенник (man who sings songs) · bg песенник (one who writes songs) · ru певе́ц (man who sings songs) · fi laulaja (man who sings songs) · pl autorka tekstów piosenek (one who writes songs) · ru пе́сенник (one who writes songs) · pl ptak śpiewający (male songbird) · de Sänger (man who sings songs) · nl zanger (man who sings songs) · tr şarkıcı (man who sings songs) · cy canwr (man who sings songs) · cs pěvec (man who sings songs) · cs zpěvák (man who sings songs) · sh pjevàč (man who sings songs) · es cantor (man who sings songs)