Folk vs Myth - What's the difference?
folk | myth |
Of or pertaining to the inhabitants of a land, their culture, tradition, or history.
Of or pertaining to common people as opposed to ruling classes or elites.
(architecture) Of or related to local building materials and styles.
Believed or transmitted by the common people; not academically correct or rigorous.
(archaic) A grouping of smaller peoples or tribes as a nation.
* J. R. Green
The inhabitants of a region, especially the native inhabitants.
*1907 , Race Prejudice , Jean Finot, p. 251:
*:We thus arrive at a most unexpected imbroglio. The French have become a Germanic folk' and the Germanic ' folk have become Gaulish!
One’s relatives, especially one’s parents.
(music) Folk music.
(plural only) People in general.
* {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
, chapter=1 (plural only) A particular group of people.
A traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a god, a hero, the origin of the world or of a people, etc.
(uncountable) Such stories as a genre.
A commonly-held but false belief, a common misconception; a fictitious or imaginary person or thing; a popular conception about a real person or event which exaggerates or idealizes reality.
A person or thing held in excessive or quasi-religious awe or admiration based on popular legend
A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose actual existence is not verifiable.
* Ld. Lytton
As nouns the difference between folk and myth
is that folk is people while myth is a traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a god, a hero, the origin of the world or of a people, etc.folk
English
Alternative forms
* voke, volk, volke (dialectal)Adjective
(-)- folk''' psychology; '''folk linguistics
Noun
(en-noun)- The organization of each folk , as such, sprang mainly from war.
citation, passage=“[…] 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
Derived terms
* folk devil * folk etymology * folk hero * folklore * folk medicine * folk memory * folk music * folkster * folksyReferences
myth
English
Alternative forms
* mythe (rare or archaic)Noun
(en noun)- Myth was the product of man's emotion and imagination, acted upon by his surroundings.'' (E. Clodd, ''Myths & Dreams (1885), 7, cited after OED)
- Father Flanagan was legendary, his institution an American myth. (Tucson (Arizona) Citizen, 20 September 1979, 5A/3, cited after OED)
- As for Mrs. Primmins's bones, they had been myths these twenty years.