folklore
pronunciation
How to pronounce folklore in British English:
UK [ˈfəʊklɔː(r)]
How to pronounce folklore in American English:
US [ˈfoʊklɔːr]
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- Noun:
- the unwritten literature (stories and proverbs and riddles and songs) of a culture
Word Origin
- folklore (n.)
- "traditional beliefs and customs of the common people," 1846, coined by antiquarian William J. Thoms (1803-1885) as an Anglo-Saxonism (replacing popular antiquities) in imitation of German compounds in Volk- and first published in the "Athenaeum" of Aug. 22, 1846; see folk + lore. Old English folclar meant "homily." This word revived folk in a modern sense of "of the common people, whose culture is handed down orally," and opened up a flood of compound formations: Folk art (1892), folk-hero (1874), folk-medicine (1877), folk-tale (1850; Old English folctalu meant "genealogy"), folk-song (1847, "a song of the people," translating German Volkslied), folk-singer (1876), folk-dance (1877).
Example
- 1. Some say snopes is changing the nature of folklore .
- 2. The new venture 's mandate is to make english-language films based on chinese folklore and history .
- 3. These staggering numbers passed down through the centuries in a haze of folklore were long regarded as myth .
- 4. Ranging from myths of hyperactivity to myths of sex , candy is the subject of much scientific and cultural folklore .
- 5. In fact , when it comes to storytelling , one could argue that folklore has had a much more profound influence on civilization than modernism .