folks
NounOpen English WordNet
Noun (2)
- your parents“he wrote to his folks every day”Type of kin, kin group
- 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”Synonyms: folkcommon peopleType of peopleKinds gentlefolk, rabble, home folk, country people, grass rootsMembers plebeian, pleb
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. fōlk, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.
1. English history In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. obsolete
The organization of each folk, as such, sprang mainly from war.— John Richard 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. colloquial
In winter's tedious nights, sit by the fire With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales.— William Shakespeare
3. The persons of one's own family; as, our folks are all well. Colloq. New Eng. John Russell. 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.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54