folklore

See also: Folklore and folk-lore

English

Alternative forms

• folk-lore

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Germanic *fulkazder.

Proto-Germanic *fulką

Proto-West Germanic *folk

Old English folc

Middle English folk

English folk

Proto-Indo-European *leys-

Proto-Indo-European *(le-)lóys-e

Proto-Germanic *lizaną

Proto-Indo-European *-yeti

Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti

Proto-Germanic *-janą

Proto-Germanic *laizijaną

Proto-Germanic *laizō

Proto-West Germanic *laiʀu

Old English lār

Middle English lore

English lore

English folklore

From folk +‎ lore, coined by British writer William Thoms in 1846 to replace terms such as "popular antiquities". Thoms imitated German terms such as Volklehre (“people's customs”) and Volksüberlieferung (“popular tradition”). Compare also Old English folclar (“popular instruction; homily”) and West Frisian folkloare (“folklore”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfəʊk.lɔː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfoʊk.lɔːɹ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

folklore (countable and uncountable, plural folklores)

1. The tales, legends, superstitions, and traditions of a particular ethnic population.
   • 1903 April 18, W[illiam] E[dward] Burghardt Du Bois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings”, in The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., →OCLC, pages 11–12:

     [T]here is no true American music but the wild sweet melodies of the Negro slave; the American fairy tales and folk-lore are Indian and African; and, all in all, we black men seem the sole oasis of simple faith and reverence in a dusty desert of dollars and smartness.

   • 1908–1910 (date written; published 1910 October 18), E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter 33, in Howards End, London: Edward Arnold, →OCLC:

     Why has not England a great mythology? Our folklore has never advanced beyond daintiness, and the greater melodies about our country-side have all issued through the pipes of Greece.

   • 1913, Booth Tarkington, The Flirt, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC:

     “Lisieux is a little town in Normandy,” she said. “I was there a few days with your father, one summer, long ago. It’s a country full of old stories, folklore, and traditions; and the people still believe in the Old Scratch pretty literally. […] ”

   • 1921, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 5, in Tarzan the Terrible‎^[1], A. C. McClurg:

     Crossing the ridge she stood at last upon the brink of Kor-ul-GRYF—the horror place of the folklore of her race.

2. (by extension) The tales, superstitions etc. of any particular group or community.
   • 1996, Eric S. Raymond, The New Hacker's Dictionary, 3rd edition, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 3:

     A selection of longer items of hacker folklore and humor is included in Appendix A, Hacker Folklore.

   • 2021 May, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 0 – 1 Leicester”, in BBC Sport‎^[2]:

     Foxes boss Rodgers had a smile that illuminated Wembley as he joined Leicester's players in joyous scenes of celebration after the manager and his players had written their name into the club's folklore.

3. (mathematics, slang) The collective of proofs or techniques which are widely known among mathematicians, but have never been formally published.

Derived terms

• computerlore
• fakelore
• folkloric
• folklorish
• folklorism
• folklorist
• folkloristic
• folkloristically
• folkloristics
• nonfolklore
• non-folklore
• pseudofolklore

Descendants

• → Catalan: folklore
• → Danish: folklore
• → Esperanto: folkloro
• → French: folklore
  • → Romanian: folclor n
  • → Turkish: folklor
• → Galician: folclore
• → German: Folklore
• → Hebrew: פוֹלְקְלוֹר (folklór)
• → Hungarian: folklór
• → Italian: folclore
• → Polish: folklor
• → Portuguese: folclore
• → Russian: фолькло́р (folʹklór)
• → Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic script: фо̀лкло̄р

  Latin script: fòlklōr

• → Spanish: folclore, folclor, folklore, folklor
• → Swedish: folklore
• → Yiddish: פֿאָלקלאָר (folklor)

Translations

tales, legends and superstitions of a particular ethnic population — see also lore

• Albanian: folklor (sq) m
• Arabic: فُولْكْلُور m (folklōr), فُولْكُلُور m (folkolōr), فُلْكْلُور m (folklōr), فُلْكُلُور m (folkolōr)
• Armenian: ֆոլկլոր (hy) (folklor), բանահյուսություն (hy) (banahyusutʻyun), բանահյուսական (hy) (banahyusakan)
• Azerbaijani: folklor, xəlqiyyat
• Basque: folklore
• Belarusian: фалькло́р m (falʹklór), фальклёр m (falʹkljór)
• Bengali: উপকথা (bn) (upokotha), লোকাচারবিদ্যা (lōkacarobidda)
• Bulgarian: фолкло́р (bg) m (folklór)
• Burmese: ဇနကထာ (ja.na.ka.hta)
• Carpathian Rusyn: фолкло́р m (folklór)
• Catalan: folklore (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 民俗 (man⁴ zuk⁶)

  Hokkien: 民俗 (bîn-sio̍k)

  Mandarin: 民俗 (zh) (mínsú)

  Wu: 民俗 (⁶min-zoq)

• Czech: folklór (cs) m
• Danish: folklore c
• Dutch: folklore (nl) f
• Esperanto: folkloro
• Estonian: rahvaluule, folkloor
• Finnish: kansanperinne (fi)
• French: folklore (fr) m
• Galician: folclore (gl) m
• Georgian: ფოლკლორი (ka) (polḳlori)
• German: Volkstradition f, Volksüberlieferung (de), Volkskunde (de) f, Folklore (de) f
• Greek: λαογραφία (el) f (laografía), λαϊκή παράδοση f (laïkí parádosi)
• Guarani:

  Paraguayan Guarani: ^{(please verify)} tavarandu

• Hebrew: פוֹלְקְלוֹר (he) m (folklór)
• Hindi: लोकसाहित्य m (loksāhitya) (folk literature)
• Hungarian: néphagyomány (hu), folklór (hu)
• Icelandic: þjóðmenning f, alþýðumenning f, þjóðtrú f (folk beliefs)
• Indonesian: folklor (id), cerita rakyat (id)
• Ingrian: foljklora
• Irish: béaloideas m
• Italian: folclore (it) m
• Japanese: 民俗 (ja) (みんぞく, minzoku), 伝承 (ja) (でんしょう, denshō), 民話 (ja) (みんわ, minwa)
• Kazakh: фольклор (folʹklor)
• Khmer: រឿងព្រេង (rɨəng preing)
• Korean: 민속(民俗) (ko) (minsok), 민화(民話) (ko) (minhwa)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: zargotin (ku)

• Kyrgyz: фольклор (ky) (folklor)
• Lao: ນິຍາຽ (ni nyāi)
• Latvian: folklora (lv) f, garamantas f pl
• Limburgish: vólksleirn
• Lithuanian: folkloras m
• Macedonian: фолклор m (folklor)
• Malagasy: angano (mg), arira (mg)
• Malay: budaya rakyat, cerita rakyat
• Mizo: thurochun
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: ардын аман зохиол (ardyn aman zoxiol), аман зохиол (aman zoxiol)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: folklore m

• Pashto: فولکلور (ps) m (folklōr)
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: فولْکُلور (folkolôr), فَرْهَنْگِ مَرْدُم (farhang-e mardom), فَرْهَنْگِ عامِّه (farhang-e âmme)

• Polish: folklor (pl) m, tradycja ludowa f
• Portuguese: folclore (pt) m
• Romanian: folclor (ro) n
• Russian: фолькло́р (ru) m (folʹklór)
• Scottish Gaelic: beul-aithris f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: фо̀лкло̄р m

  Latin: fòlklōr (sh) m

• Sinhalese: ජනප්‍රවාද (janaprawāda‌)
• Slovak: folklór m
• Slovene: folklor m
• Spanish: folclore (es) m, folclor (es) m, demosofía f, folklore m, folklor (es) m
• Swahili: hadithi za kale
• Swedish: folklore (sv) c
• Tagalog: kuwentong bayan
• Tajik: фолклор (folklor)
• Tatar: фольклор (tt) (folʹklor)
• Thai: นิทาน (th) (ní-taan), คติชน (ká-dtì-chon), คติชาวบ้าน (th) (ká-dtì-chaao-bâan)
• Turkish: folklor (tr)
• Turkmen: folklor
• Ukrainian: фолькло́р (uk) m (folʹklór)
• Urdu: لوک کَہانی f (lok kahānī) (folk literature)
• Uyghur: فولكلور (folklor)
• Uzbek: folklor (uz), boboso’z
• Vietnamese: văn học dân gian
• Yiddish: פֿאָלקלאָר m (folklor)

See also

• folk
• lore
• myth
• oral tradition
• intangible cultural heritage

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from English folklore.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [fulˈklo̞.ɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [folˈklɔ.ɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Central) [fulˈklɔ.ɾə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia, Northwestern) [folˈklo.ɾe]

Noun

folklore m (uncountable)

1. folklore

Derived terms

• folklòric

Further reading

• “folklore”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “folklore”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “folklore” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “folklore”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Danish

Etymology

From English folklore, from folk + lore.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔlkloːrə/, [fʌlɡ̊ˈloːɐ], [fʌlˈkʰloːɐ]

Noun

folklore c (singular definite folkloren, not used in plural form)

1. folklore

Further reading

• “folklore” in Den Danske Ordbog
• folklore on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English folklore.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔlˈkloːrə/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fol‧klo‧re

Noun

folklore c (uncountable, no diminutive)

1. folklore

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English folklore.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔl.klɔʁ/

Noun

folklore m (plural folklores)

1. folklore

Descendants

• → Romanian: folclor n
• → Turkish: folklor

Further reading

• “folklore”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Indonesian

Noun

folklore (plural folklore-folklore)

1. alternative spelling of folklor (“folklore”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From English folklore.

Noun

folklore m (definite singular folkloren, indefinite plural folklorer, definite plural folklorene)

1. folklore

References

• “folklore” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From English folklore.

Noun

folklore m (definite singular folkloren, indefinite plural folklorar, definite plural folklorane)

1. folklore

References

• “folklore” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /folˈkloɾe/ [folˈklo.ɾe]
  • Rhymes: -oɾe
• IPA^(key): /folˈkloɾ/ [folˈkloɾ]
  • Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: fol‧klo‧re

Noun

folklore m (plural folklores)

1. alternative spelling of folclore

Further reading

• “folklore”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Swedish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English folklore. Attested since 1872.

Noun

folklore c

1. folklore

Declension

Declension of folklore

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	folklore	folklores
	definite	folkloren	folklorens
plural	indefinite	—	—
	definite	—	—

See also

• folktro

References

• “folklore”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “folklore”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)