A small banjo-like stringed instrument with a higher pitch than a standard banjo, sometimes used in folk and novelty music.
From 'banjo' with the diminutive suffix '-ine' (or '-ino'), following the Italian pattern of creating smaller versions of instruments with specific naming conventions.
Musical instrument naming reveals a lot about colonial history—the suffix '-ine' suggests European influence on what is fundamentally an African-American instrument, showing how cultural borrowing and adaptation works across traditions.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.