work song
1
3.7
- noun
- /wɜrk sɔŋ/
:
canción de trabajo
- The blues emerged from other African American oral forms, including work songs, field hollers, ballads, and hymns.
- work song spirituals
- African work song
- work song field
Examples
-
Selections included two spirituals, a work song, and a more contemporary song.
Academic text (2005) -
Throughout the series, Lomax emphasized historical and contemporary work songs, dedicating episodes to such themes as railroad, teamster, lumberjack, "forecastle," and "Negro work" songs.
Academic text (2013) -
Work songs usually have a very regular beat, while mountain songs are usually sung more freely.
Academic text (2007) -
Most likely because of the show's focus on work songs, it tended to be a male-dominated program.
Academic text (2013) -
The selections included greeting songs, work songs, lullabies, and singing games.
Academic text (1990) -
Since ancient times, Chinese people have sung work songs to coordinate physical activity and to unify the rhythmic action in performing a task.
Academic text (2007) -
By dedicating shows to themes such as spirituals, black work songs, and railroad songs, he emphasized the importance that black traditions had in shaping American folk music.
Academic text (2013) -
A four-part arrangement of the traditional African American work song "I've Been Drivin' on Bald Mountain" featured the boys singing the melody line in unison.
Academic text (2005) -
As the workers picked cotton, they often sang a work song to keep their spirits high.
-
During the long hours in the fields, the farmers would sing work songs to relieve their boredom.
Synonyms
3
8.8
A rhythmic song sailors sing while working on a ship
1
9.9
A rhythmic work song sailors sing to help them work together
1
8.3
A song sailors sing to keep a steady beat while they work together
1
9.9
A rhythmic song sailors sing to keep time while working on a ship
A song sailors sing while working to keep everyone in time
Antonyms
How Work-Related
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a song sung to accompany work' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'work' (the activity) with 'song' (a piece of music), where the first noun modifies the second to indicate purpose or context. This straightforward noun–noun composition is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Work song comes from the simple image of people singing while they work. The song gives a steady beat to match their movements and makes hard tasks less boring, so 'work song' means a song with a steady beat sung to help and coordinate work.