folklore
- the traditional beliefs, legends, customs, etc., of a people; lore of a people.
- the study of such lore.
- a body of widely held but false or unsubstantiated beliefs.
Origin of folklore
Examples from the Web for folklorist
Historical Examples
Only recently has she been indicated as her nation's first folklorist and feminist!
Brazilian TalesJoaquim Maria Machado de Assis
There is still to notice the unsatisfactory attitude of the folklorist.
Folklore as an Historical ScienceGeorge Laurence Gomme
The Folklorist is not unnaturally jealous of what, in some degree, looks like Folk-Lore.
Little JohannesFrederik van Eeden
Mannhardt's method was more that of the folklorist than the philologist.
An Introduction to MythologyLewis Spence
Afanasiev, Alexander Nicolaievitsh, Russian folklorist, born in 1826.
folklore
- the unwritten literature of a people as expressed in folk tales, proverbs, riddles, songs, etc
- the body of stories and legends attached to a particular place, group, activity, etcHollywood folklore; rugby folklore
- the anthropological discipline concerned with the study of folkloric materials
Word Origin and History for folklorist
folklore
n.
1846, coined by antiquarian William J. Thoms (1803-1885) as an Anglo-Saxonism (replacing popular antiquities) and first published in the "Athenaeum" of Aug. 22, 1846, from folk + lore. Old English folclar meant "homily."
This word revived folk in a modern sense of "of the common people, whose culture is handed down orally," and opened up a flood of compound formations, e.g. folk art (1892), folk-hero (1874), folk-medicine (1877), folk-tale/folk tale (1850; Old English folctalu meant "genealogy"), folk-song (1847), folk singer (1876), folk-dance (1877).
folklore
Traditional stories and legends, transmitted orally (rather than in writing) from generation to generation. The stories of Paul Bunyan are examples of American folklore.