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definitions

folk

[fohk]
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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR folk ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

adjective

of or originating among the common people: folk beliefs; a folk hero.
having unknown origins and reflecting the traditional forms of a society: folk culture; folk art.

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RELATED WORDS

community, group, public, family, people, lineage, tribe, settlement, proletariat, house, masses, kindred, nation, society, state, race, kin, nationality, clan, population

Idioms

    just folks, Informal. (of persons) simple, unaffected, unsophisticated, or open-hearted people: He enjoyed visiting his grandparents because they were just folks.

Origin of folk

before 900; Middle English; Old English folc; cognate with Old Saxon, Old Norse folk, Old High German folk (German Volk)

Synonyms for folk

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR folk ON THESAURUS.COM
4. kinfolk, kin, relations, people; clan, tribe.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for folk

British Dictionary definitions for folk

folk

noun plural folk or folks

(functioning as plural; often plural in form) people in general, esp those of a particular group or classcountry folk
(functioning as plural; usually plural in form) informal members of a family
(functioning as singular) informal short for folk music
a people or tribe
(modifier) relating to, originating from, or traditional to the common people of a countrya folk song
Derived Formsfolkish, adjectivefolkishness, noun

Word Origin for folk

Old English folc; related to Old Saxon, Old Norse, Old High German folk
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for folk
n.

Old English folc "common people, laity; men; people, nation, tribe; multitude; troop, army," from Proto-Germanic *folkom (cf. Old Frisian folk, Middle Dutch volc, German Volk "people"), from Proto-Germanic *fulka-, perhaps originally "host of warriors;" cf. Old Norse folk "people," also "army, detachment;" and Lithuanian pulkas "crowd," Old Church Slavonic pluku "division of an army," both believed to have been borrowed from Proto-Germanic. Old English folcstede could mean both "dwelling-place" and "battlefield."

Some have attempted to link the word to Greek plethos "multitude;" Latin plebs "people, mob," populus "people" or vulgus; OED and Klein discount this theory but it is accepted in Watkins. The plural form has been usual since 17c. Superseded in most senses by people. Old English folc was commonly used in forming compounds, such as folccwide "popular saying," folcgemot "town or district meeting;" folcwoh "deception of the public." Folk-etymology is attested from 1890.

By Folk-etymology is meant the influence exercised upon words, both as to their form and meaning, by the popular use and misuse of them. In a special sense, it is intended to denote the corruption which words undergo, owing either to false ideas about their derivation, or to a mistaken analogy with other words to which they are supposed to be related. [The Rev. A. Smythe Palmer, "Folk-Etymology," 1890]
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with folk

folk

see just folks.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.