FOLK SONG • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Folk song

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/foʊk sɔŋ/ Listen

noun

Folks, Folk n.

(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."

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."

The persons of one's own family; as, our folks are all well. (Colloq. New Eng.)

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.

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Etymology of 'Folk song'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Folk song" Quotes from Famous Books

... they had sung this song and departed for the ends of the earth; they called to mind their long years of wandering, over lands and seas, over frosts and burning sands, amid foreign peoples, where often in camp they had been cheered and heartened by this folk song. So thinking, they sadly ...

— Pan Tadeusz • Adam Mickiewicz

... to the languages of China, Egypt, and India. Up to the last two centuries our written music was held in bondage, was "fossil music," so to speak. Only certain progressions of sounds were allowed, for religion controlled music. In the Middle Ages folk song was used by the Church, and a certain amount of control was exercised over it; even up to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the use of sharps and flats was frowned upon in church music. But gradually music began to break ...

— Critical & Historical Essays - Lectures delivered at Columbia University • Edward MacDowell

... /n.,v./ [from SF fandom, where a typo for 'folk' was adopted as a new word] A popular or folk song with lyrics revised or completely new lyrics, intended for humorous effect when read, and/or to be sung late at night at SF conventions. There is a flourishing subgenre of these called 'computer filks', written by hackers ...

— The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0

... and the results will make several national volumes of folklore. The essays in the State Guides devoted to folklore are also under his supervision." Since 1933 Mr. Lomax has been Honorary Curator of the Archive of American Folk Song, Library of Congress.] ...

— Slave Narratives, Administrative Files (A Folk History of - Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves) • Works Projects Administration