folk
People in general; the common people of a region or community.
Etymology
Modern English folk comes from Old English folc "common people, nation, tribe," from Proto-Germanic *fulką, from PIE *polH- or *pleh₁- meaning "to fill" (in the sense of "a multitude, many people"). The same PIE root produced Latin plēbs "the common people" (giving English plebeian), Greek plēthos "multitude" (giving English plethora), Latin plēnus "full" (giving English plenty, plenary, replenish), and Sanskrit pūrṇá- "full." The semantic link between "fullness" and "people" is the image of a populated territory — a folk is a full community. German Volk, Dutch volk, and Old Norse fólk are direct cognates. Within English, the word remained common throughout history: folklore (coined in 1846 by William Thoms), folk song, folk tale, and the intensely productive suffix -folk in Norfolk and Suffolk ("north folk" and "south folk") demonstrate its endurance.
The Journey: *polH- → folk
*polH-
*fulką
folc
folk
folk
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root *polH-. They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| German | Volk | people, nation |
| Latin | plēbs | common people |
| Old Norse | fólk | people |
| Lithuanian | pulkas | crowd |
| Russian | polk | regiment |
Did You Know?
Norfolk and Suffolk literally mean "north folk" and "south folk" — the northern and southern people of the old East Anglian kingdom. The word folk, full, plenty, and plethora all share the PIE root *pleh₁- "to fill." A folk is etymologically "the fullness" of a community, a crowd that fills the land.