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folk

 - 5 dictionary results
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folk

  [fohk]
Use folk in a Sentence
–noun
1. 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)

Synonyms:
4. kinfolk, kin, relations, people; clan, tribe.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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folk   (fōk)   
n.   pl. folk or folks

    1. 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.

    2. Archaic A nation; a people.

    3. The members of one's family or childhood household; one's relatives.

    4. One's parents: My folks are coming for a visit.

  2. Informal People in general. Often used in the plural: Folks around here are very friendly.

  3. People of a specified group or kind. Often used in the plural: city folks; rich folk.

  4. folks Informal

    1. The members of one's family or childhood household; one's relatives.

    2. 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.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

folk 
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.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

folk

see just folks.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Encyclopedia

folk

an ideal type or concept of society that is completely cohesive-morally, religiously, politically, and socially-because of the small numbers and isolated state of the people, because of the relatively unmediated personal quality of social interaction, and because the entire world of experience is permeated with religious meaning, the understanding and expression of which are shared by all members. The folk society is generally assumed to be the model of preliterate or so-called primitive societies that anthropologists have traditionally studied.

Learn more about folk with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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