Etymology From Middle English folk, from Old English folc, from Proto-West Germanic *folk, from Proto-Germanic *fulką, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁-gós, from *pleh₁- (“to fill”). Cognate with German Volk, Dutch volk, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish folk, Icelandic fólk. Doublet of volk.
1
Archaic A people; a tribe or nation; the inhabitants of a region, especially the native inhabitants.
The organization of each folk, as such, sprang mainly from war.1878-1880, John Richard Green, History of the English People:
We thus arrive at a most unexpected imbroglio. The French have become a Germanic folk and the Germanic folk have become Gaulish!1907, Race Prejudice, Jean Finot, page 251
2
Collective People, persons.
There were a lot of folk in the streets.
Young folk, old folk, everybody come / To our little Sunday School, and have a lot of fun.
1 more example
“[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes[…]. And then, when you see [the senders], you probably find that they are the most melancholy old folk with malignant diseases. […]”1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
3
Collective, Usually, As folks One’s relatives, especially one’s parents.
I need to call my folks back home.
4
Entertainment, Lifestyle, MusicAbbreviation, Ellipsis Ellipsis of folk music.
Etymology From Middle English folk, from Old English folc, from Proto-West Germanic *folk, from Proto-Germanic *fulką, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁-gós, from *pleh₁- (“to fill”). Cognate with German Volk, Dutch volk, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish folk, Icelandic fólk. Doublet of volk.
1
Of or pertaining to the inhabitants of a land, their culture, tradition, or history.
2
Of or pertaining to common people as opposed to ruling classes or elites.
3
Architecture Of or related to local building materials and styles.
4
Believed or transmitted by the common people; not academically or ideologically correct or rigorous.
folk psychology; folk linguistics
Americans are not libertarians in the Cato Institute sense of the word, but they are folk libertarians in this sense of impulsive behaviour, which is a feature of American life that anyone who wants to govern the United States, Democratic or Republican, has to be aware of.2025 April 28, Ross Douthat, Nick Adams, “Condition of America”, in New Left Review, number 152, →ISSN: