Where does “folk” come from?
folk (Middle English) comes from Old English folc, from Proto-West Germanic folk, from Proto-Germanic fulką, from Proto-Indo-European pleh₁- — to fill.
folk (Middle English): folk
Ancestry of “folk”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Old English | folc | a people, nation, tribe; crowd; people |
| 2 | Proto-West Germanic | folk | people, tribe |
| 3 | Proto-Germanic | fulką | people; tribe |
| 4 | Proto-Indo-European | pleh₁- | to fill |
Words derived from “folk”