Folkとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From 中期英語 folk, from 古期英語 folc, from Proto-West Germanic *folk, from Proto-Germanic *fulką, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁-gós, from *pleh₁- (“to fill”).

Cognate with German Volk, Dutch volk, Swedish folk and Danish folk. Doublet of volk.

発音

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /fəʊk/
• (General American) IPA: /foʊk/, (nonstandard) /foʊlk/
• 韻: -əʊk

名詞

folk (countable and uncountable, plural folks)

1. (countable, archaic) A people; a tribe or nation; the inhabitants of a region, especially the native inhabitants.
   • 1878-1880, John Richard Green, History of the English People:

     The organization of each folk, as such, sprang mainly from war.

   • 1907, Race Prejudice, Jean Finot, page 251:

     We thus arrive at a most unexpected imbroglio. The French have become a Germanic folk and the Germanic folk have become Gaulish!

2. (collective plural) People, persons.

   There were a lot of folk in the streets.

   Young folk, old folk, everybody come / To our little Sunday School, and have a lot of fun.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     “ […] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes […] . And then, when you see [the senders], you probably find that they are the most melancholy old folk with malignant diseases. […] ”

3. (collective plural, usually as folks) One’s relatives, especially one’s parents.

   I need to call my folks back home.

4. (music) Ellipsis of folk music.

使用する際の注意点

• In principle, folk behaves grammatically like the synonym people. As a countable noun (meaning “nation”) it may take the plural folks. As a collective plural (meaning “persons”) it remains unchanged. Informally, however, the form folks is also used in the collective sense (which is not possible for peoples). This latter usage is particularly common in the sense “relatives”.

派生語

関連する語

形容詞

folk (not comparable)

1. Of or pertaining to the inhabitants of a land, their culture, tradition, or history.
2. Of or pertaining to common people as opposed to ruling classes or elites.
3. (architecture) Of or related to local building materials and styles.
4. Believed or transmitted by the common people; not academically or ideologically correct or rigorous.

   folk psychology; folk linguistics

   • 2025 April 28, Ross Douthat, Nick Adams, “Condition of America”, in New Left Review‎, number 152, →ISSN:

     Americans are not libertarians in the Cato Institute sense of the word, but they are folk libertarians in this sense of impulsive behaviour, which is a feature of American life that anyone who wants to govern the United States, Democratic or Republican, has to be aware of.

派生語

• folk etymology
• folk medicine

Further reading

• Raymond Williams (1983), “Folk”, in Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, revised American edition, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1985, →ISBN, page 136

語源

From 古期英語 folc, from Proto-West Germanic *folk, from Proto-Germanic *fulką.

発音

• IPA: /fɔlk/

名詞

folk (plural folk or folkes)

1. people, folk (multiple individuals)
   • 1387–1400, [Geoffrey] Chaucer, “Here Bygynneth the Book of the Tales of Caunt́burẏ”, in The Tales of Caunt́bury (Hengwrt Chaucer; Peniarth Manuscript 392D), Aberystwyth, Ceredigion: National Library of Wales, published [c. 1400–1410], →OCLC, folio 2, recto, lines 23-26:

     At nyght was come / in to that hoſtelrye / Wel ·xxix· in a compaignye / Of sondry folk / by auenture yfalle / In felaweſhipe / and pilgrymes weere they alle

     There came at nightfall to that hostelry / Some nine and twenty in a company / Of sundry folk who had chanced to fall / In fellowship, and pilgrims were they all

2. nation, race, stock
   • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎, published c. 1410, Apocalips 11:18, folio 121, recto, column 2; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

     ⁊ folkis ben wrooþ · ⁊ þi wraþþe cam · ⁊ tyme of deed men to be demed · ⁊ to ȝelde meede to þi ſeruauntis ⁊ pꝛophetis ⁊ halowis ⁊ dꝛedynge þi name · to ſmale ⁊ to grete / ⁊ to diſtrie hem þat coꝛrumpiden þe erþe

     And the nations were furious; then your fury came. It is time for the dead to be judged, to give rewards to your servants, prophets, saints, and those who fear your name, both small and large, and to destroy those who destroyed the Earth.

3. group, band, troop (of people):
   1. subjects, followers, comitatus
   2. army, retinue (group of armed people)
   3. gathering, parliament
4. family, kin, relatives
5. humankind, humanity; all people
6. (rare) creatures, beings

使用する際の注意点

• This noun may be either treated as a conventional singular noun (with folkes as a plural or an uncountable collective noun.

関連する語

• lond folk
• Northfolk
• Suffolk

派生した語

• English: folk; folkes
• Scots: fowk

参照

• “folk, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.