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Folk

//fəʊk// adj, name, noun

Definitions

Adjective

1
Of or pertaining to the inhabitants of a land, their culture, tradition, or history. not-comparable
2
Of or pertaining to common people as opposed to ruling classes or elites. not-comparable
3
Of or related to local building materials and styles. not-comparable
4
Believed or transmitted by the common people; not academically or ideologically correct or rigorous. not-comparable
"folk psychology; folk linguistics"

Proper Noun

1
A surname.

Noun

1
A people; a tribe or nation; the inhabitants of a region, especially the native inhabitants. archaic, countable
"The organization of each folk, as such, sprang mainly from war."
2
the traditional and typically anonymous music that is an expression of the life of people in a community wordnet
3
People, persons. collective, countable, plural, uncountable
"There were a lot of folk in the streets."
4
people in general (often used in the plural) wordnet
5
One’s relatives, especially one’s parents. collective, countable, plural, uncountable, usually
"I need to call my folks back home."

Show 3 more definitions

6
people descended from a common ancestor wordnet
7
Ellipsis of folk music. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable
8
a social division of (usually preliterate) people wordnet

Etymology

Etymology 1

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, Swedish folk and Danish folk. Doublet of volk.

Etymology 2

Etymology 3

* As a German surname, variant of Volk (“people, tribe”). * As an English surname, variant of Foulk, related to the noun folk, thus cognate with the above.

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