Usually, folks.(used with a plural verb) people in general: Folks say there wasn't much rain last summer.
2.
Often, folks.(used with a plural verb) people of a specified class or group: country folk; poor folks.
3.
(used with a plural verb) people as the carriers of culture, esp. as representing the composite of social mores, customs, forms of behavior, etc., in a society: The folk are the bearers of oral tradition.
4.
folks, Informal.
a.
members of one's family; one's relatives: All his folks come from France.
b.
one's parents: Will your folks let you go?
5.
Archaic. a people or tribe.
–adjective
6.
of or originating among the common people: folk beliefs; a folk hero.
7.
having unknown origins and reflecting the traditional forms of a society: folk culture; folk art.
—Idiom
8.
just folks, Informal. (of persons) simple, unaffected, unsophisticated, or open-hearted people: He enjoyed visiting his grandparents because they were just folks.
[Origin: bef. 900; ME; OE folc; c. OS, ON folk, OHG folk (G Volk)]
The common people of a society or region considered as the representatives of a traditional way of life and especially as the originators or carriers of the customs, beliefs, and arts that make up a distinctive culture: a leader who came from the folk.
Archaic A nation; a people.
The members of one's family or childhood household; one's relatives.
One's parents: My folks are coming for a visit.
Informal People in general. Often used in the plural: Folks around here are very friendly.
People of a specified group or kind. Often used in the plural: city folks; rich folk.
folksInformal
The members of one's family or childhood household; one's relatives.
One's parents: My folks are coming for a visit.
adj.
Of, occurring in, or originating among the common people: folk culture; a folk hero.
[Middle English, from Old English folc; see pelə-1 in Indo-European roots.]
O.E. folc "common people, men, tribe, multitude," from P.Gmc. *folkom (cf. O.Fris. folk, M.Du. volc, Ger. Volk "people"), from P.Gmc. *fulka-, perhaps originally "host of warriors;" cf. O.N. folk "people," also "army, detachment;" and Lith. pulkas "crowd," O.C.S. pluku "division of an army," both believed to have been borrowed from P.Gmc. Some have attempted, without success, to link the word to Gk. plethos "multitude;" L. plebs "people, mob," populus "people" or vulgus. Superseded in most senses by people. Colloquial folks "people of one's family" first recorded 1715. Folksy "sociable, unpretentious" is 1852, U.S. colloquial, from folks + -y.
people in general (often used in the plural); "they're just country folk"; "folks around here drink moonshine"; "the common people determine the group character and preserve its customs from one generation to the next"
2.
a social division of (usually preliterate) people [syn: tribe]
3.
people descended from a common ancestor; "his family has lived in Massachusetts since the Mayflower" [syn: family]
4.
the traditional and typically anonymous music that is an expression of the life of people in a community [syn: folk music]
North Folk Village, OH (CDP, FIPS 56546) Location: 39.33635 N, 83.02777 W Population (1990): 1247 (515 housing units) Area: 1.4 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
Folk\ (f[=o]k), Folks \Folks\ (f[=o]ks), n. collect. & pl. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f[=o]lk, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]1. (Eng. Hist.) In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [Obs.] The organization of each folk, as such, sprang mainly from war. --J. R. Green. 2. People in general, or a separate class of people; -- generally used in the plural form, and often with a qualifying adjective; as, the old folks; poor folks. [Colloq.] In winter's tedious nights, sit by the fire With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales. --Shak. 3. The persons of one's own family; as, our folks are all well. [Colloq. New Eng.] --Bartlett. Folk song, one of a class of songs long popular with the common people. Folk speech, the speech of the common people, as distinguished from that of the educated class.