Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Folk"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Folk \Folk\ (f[=o]k), Folks \Folks\ (f[=o]ks), n. collect. & pl.
[AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel.
f[=o]lk, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E.
follow.]
1. (Eng. Hist.) In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group
of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [Obs.]
The organization of each folk, as such, sprang
mainly from war. --J. R. 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.
[Colloq.]
In winter's tedious nights, sit by the fire With
good old folks, and let them tell thee tales.
--Shak.
3. The persons of one's own family; as, our folks are all
well. [Colloq. New Eng.] --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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
folk
adj : (of music) characteristic of rural life [syn: {country(a)},
{folk(a)}, {hillbilly}, {western(a)}]
n 1: people in general; "they're just country folk"; "the common
people determine the group character and preserve its
customs from one generation to the next" [syn: {common
people}]
2: a social division of (usually preliterate) people [syn: {tribe}]
3: people descended from a common ancestor; "his family had
lived in Massachusetts since the Mayflower" [syn: {family},
{family line}, {kinfolk}, {kinsfolk}, {sept}, {phratry}]
4: the traditional and typically anonymous music that is an
expression of the life of people in a community [syn: {folk
music}, {ethnic music}]
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