folks
UK /fəʊks/ · US /foʊks/ noun, proper noun
Also a form of folk
- noun The members of one's immediate family, especially one's parents “My folks visit us at Christmas.”
- noun (chiefly US) People in general; everybody or anybody. “Lots of folks like to travel during the holidays.”
- noun (US, slang, rare, southern Louisiana) The police.
- noun (California) Late 19th and early 20th century migrants to California from Iowa and other parts of the Midwestern United States.
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun (Southern California, early 20th century) Transplants to Southern California from the Midwestern United States, especially Iowa.
Synonyms
Etymology
Coined by California historian Kevin Starr.
Webster’s 1913
- noun In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [Obs.]
- noun 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.]
Etymology [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “folks”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details