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Does anyone else think the word "folks" is getting over used? (Original Post) GummyBearz Nov 2015 OP
It's more folksy, and that is in politically of late. nt NutmegYankee Nov 2015 #1
I blame the Mighty Jingles One_Life_To_Give Nov 2015 #2
I dislike it when someone north of the line uses it. LiberalArkie Nov 2015 #3
+1 Go Vols Nov 2015 #11
Then you hate me. tazkcmo Nov 2015 #63
No Kalidurga Nov 2015 #4
Dubya Bush is responsible for that word n/t kskiska Nov 2015 #5
So Obama picked it up from W? former9thward Nov 2015 #72
Yep, it was a Bush favorite! n/t RKP5637 Nov 2015 #76
You folks are nuts. Atman Nov 2015 #6
I see it as personal idiosyncrasy of President Obama, doesn't really bother me TacoD Nov 2015 #7
According to a poster in this thread, Bush started it GummyBearz Nov 2015 #13
I actually don't mind when Prez Obama says it. redwitch Nov 2015 #32
I have. Almost everyone. I don't mind it when Obama uses it because it seems to merrily Nov 2015 #39
YES!!!!! redwitch Nov 2015 #8
Thank you! I HATE the word "folks". smirkymonkey Nov 2015 #9
include me in that club NJCher Nov 2015 #35
I blame Ann Romney and her use of "you people." It was cold and harsh... CTyankee Nov 2015 #10
What the heck was wrong with come on, people? merrily Nov 2015 #40
yeah, it was different in that context...we were all "people" then... CTyankee Nov 2015 #62
Oh, for folks sakes! Glassunion Nov 2015 #12
Oh, boy do I! I got over being folked about a year ago. merrily Nov 2015 #14
"you guys" is sexist, "you people" is racist and "you all" geek tragedy Nov 2015 #15
"you guys" is midwestern for y'all. nt sufrommich Nov 2015 #17
Midwestern for "y'all" is "y'all" Chitown Kev Nov 2015 #24
I don't know.I've lived in the Detroit burbs for sufrommich Nov 2015 #30
Mine is a Southern transplant (black migration) family Chitown Kev Nov 2015 #37
The I-75 corridor and our factories have blended the language sufrommich Nov 2015 #43
Also tonic, which is a Mass. term, while soda is a greater NY area term. merrily Nov 2015 #45
Interesting,does tonic mean any kind of pop? sufrommich Nov 2015 #47
Between NY and Mass, it means any kind of soda merrily Nov 2015 #50
lol. nt sufrommich Nov 2015 #52
I lived in Boston a few years ago Chitown Kev Nov 2015 #51
You could have broke out in song too! sufrommich Nov 2015 #54
One of the geratest commercials of all time! Chitown Kev Nov 2015 #64
I do too! nt sufrommich Nov 2015 #65
This should be an entire OP of its own GummyBearz Nov 2015 #70
People who use "coke" as the generic name for pop sufrommich Nov 2015 #73
First they came for "you guys", then they came for "you people", next they will come for... GummyBearz Nov 2015 #18
How is "you people" racist? If a white person says it to one black person to mean an merrily Nov 2015 #42
How about "your guys's?" TacoD Nov 2015 #57
My grandmother used "folks," as did most of the folks in my extended family . . . Journeyman Nov 2015 #16
If you think I made this OP to discuss how your family uses the word folks GummyBearz Nov 2015 #29
My folks taught me pintobean Nov 2015 #19
Are your folks high ranking figures in government? GummyBearz Nov 2015 #22
They're dead pintobean Nov 2015 #49
Thanks for the help GummyBearz Nov 2015 #75
Your folks should be proud of you. pintobean Nov 2015 #79
They are GummyBearz Nov 2015 #84
Ffs. For folks sake. N/t PowerToThePeople Nov 2015 #20
Folks, you ain't heard nothin' yet. Gidney N Cloyd Nov 2015 #21
I dislike its use almost as much as the use of "homeland." Vinca Nov 2015 #23
Goodness, gracious Chitown Kev Nov 2015 #25
This. /\ Ed Suspicious Nov 2015 #26
Okay, ignore my post above. redwitch Nov 2015 #34
I wonder what the FOLKS at DU think? still_one Nov 2015 #27
I hate it; it always seems condescending to me. WinkyDink Nov 2015 #28
Since I'm one of the folks Aerows Nov 2015 #31
Corporations Are Folks..... global1 Nov 2015 #33
Townfolk merrily Nov 2015 #44
so much anti-colloquialism here at DU Enrique Nov 2015 #36
Folks, I'd like to sing a song about the American Dream. . . Travis_0004 Nov 2015 #38
I prefer people to folks, Blue_In_AK Nov 2015 #41
Doesn't bother me too much, but I hate.. Laffy Kat Nov 2015 #46
Folks is OK with me KT2000 Nov 2015 #48
Me too matt819 Nov 2015 #53
I like folk music, folk culture, folk tales, folklore, folk art. Koinos Nov 2015 #55
And it's useful on twitter. GoneOffShore Nov 2015 #56
Yes yes and more yes. I loathe that term especially since Shrub used it to snagglepuss Nov 2015 #58
Folk is old English, people is middle english gollygee Nov 2015 #59
and here we go! Chitown Kev Nov 2015 #66
Another etymology geek! gollygee Nov 2015 #68
No. bigwillq Nov 2015 #60
Probably for the sake of word variety Android3.14 Nov 2015 #61
Why would anyone have a problem with "folks?" I've heard it and used it all my life. Zen Democrat Nov 2015 #67
Dubya Bush and his spinners did that after 911. Greybnk48 Nov 2015 #69
It's just one of the words I didn't shake off from the south. Neoma Nov 2015 #71
I'll take folks over peacefreak Nov 2015 #74
Another word that is overused is "stuff". nt ladjf Nov 2015 #77
People and Folks are the main gang factions in Chicago. AngryAmish Nov 2015 #78
I think "people" and "persons" now implies corporations. "Folks" implies humans. nt valerief Nov 2015 #80
unfortunately choie Nov 2015 #81
When certain people use it forsaken mortal Nov 2015 #82
I've used both. Folks is more informal or ecstatic Nov 2015 #83

tazkcmo

(7,286 posts)
63. Then you hate me.
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:43 PM
Nov 2015

I'm o.k. with it, too. I use the word "folks" all the time. Used it in Nebraska, Germany AND Colorado.

TacoD

(581 posts)
7. I see it as personal idiosyncrasy of President Obama, doesn't really bother me
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 05:53 PM
Nov 2015

Haven't noticed other "folks" overusing it.

 

GummyBearz

(2,931 posts)
13. According to a poster in this thread, Bush started it
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 06:12 PM
Nov 2015

And clinton used it to reply to a tweet about her wall street connections the other day: "Well, I'm sorry that whoever tweeted that had that impression because I worked closely with New Yorkers after 9/11 for my entire first term to rebuild. So, yes, I did know people. I've had a lot of folks give me donations ..."

Now folks must also mean "big corporations"... take what you will from it. But "folks" just seems to soften the blow. As in "we didnt bomb people"... "we bombed some folks". I dont like it personally

redwitch

(14,933 posts)
32. I actually don't mind when Prez Obama says it.
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 06:45 PM
Nov 2015

Maybe that's not fair but there it is. He may use it to his heart's content. Everybody else on my TeeVee should back off!

merrily

(45,251 posts)
39. I have. Almost everyone. I don't mind it when Obama uses it because it seems to
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 06:57 PM
Nov 2015

be natural to him. After he started, everyone started using it, even when it was not appropriate.

NJCher

(35,427 posts)
35. include me in that club
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 06:49 PM
Nov 2015

don't really know why, but I really, really dislike it. Oddly enough, it doesn't bother me when Obama uses it, but anybody else?


Cher

CTyankee

(63,771 posts)
10. I blame Ann Romney and her use of "you people." It was cold and harsh...
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 06:02 PM
Nov 2015

"folks" is friendlier.

"Come on, folks, calm down."

vs.

"Come on, people, calm down."

CTyankee

(63,771 posts)
62. yeah, it was different in that context...we were all "people" then...
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:43 PM
Nov 2015

that wasn't Ann Romney's message...

merrily

(45,251 posts)
14. Oh, boy do I! I got over being folked about a year ago.
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 06:14 PM
Nov 2015

Everyone is using it, including when they shouldn't.

What the hell was so bad about "people?"

sufrommich

(22,871 posts)
30. I don't know.I've lived in the Detroit burbs for
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 06:42 PM
Nov 2015

most of my life and everybody I know says "you guys",except for the southern transplants. And when we go to the movies,we say we're going to "the show",I've learned not to use that term outside of the midwest if I don't want to be teased about it.

Chitown Kev

(2,197 posts)
37. Mine is a Southern transplant (black migration) family
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 06:53 PM
Nov 2015

and we say "y'all"

But yes, we go "the show" and it's "pop" and not soda because that's what it says on the Faygo cans and bottles, "pop."

sufrommich

(22,871 posts)
43. The I-75 corridor and our factories have blended the language
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:03 PM
Nov 2015

between the midwest and the south,lots of movement going both ways.

Just for fun,the pop/soda map:

merrily

(45,251 posts)
45. Also tonic, which is a Mass. term, while soda is a greater NY area term.
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:09 PM
Nov 2015

We visit family in the NY area but live in Massachusetts. To avoid confusion, my son adopted "What kind of soft drinks do you have?"

merrily

(45,251 posts)
50. Between NY and Mass, it means any kind of soda
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:23 PM
Nov 2015


If he asked for tonic in NJ/NU, he'd get the tonic used in gin and tonic and, if he asked for soda in Mass., he'd get the soda used in scotch and soda. I wish I could say his father or I helped out the poor kid, but he came up with "soft drinks" on his own.

Chitown Kev

(2,197 posts)
51. I lived in Boston a few years ago
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:24 PM
Nov 2015

and Faygo started to penetrate the market there, so I had sooooooooooo much fun telling Bostonians that when you drink faygo, you are drinking "pop" and nothing else, lol.

Chitown Kev

(2,197 posts)
64. One of the geratest commercials of all time!
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:44 PM
Nov 2015

I've only seen this Faygo ad about 3 times since its heyday in the 1970's and...yes, I know all the words each and everytime!

 

GummyBearz

(2,931 posts)
70. This should be an entire OP of its own
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 08:45 PM
Nov 2015

Soda or coke are both valid. Anyone who calls it "pop" is friggin terrorist! :p

 

GummyBearz

(2,931 posts)
18. First they came for "you guys", then they came for "you people", next they will come for...
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 06:19 PM
Nov 2015


And there will be no one left to speak up for me

merrily

(45,251 posts)
42. How is "you people" racist? If a white person says it to one black person to mean an
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:03 PM
Nov 2015

entire race, sure. That's sexist. That's a wrong usage.

What if a white teacher says it to a class of white kids? As in, You people are going to get detention if you don't settle down.

Context matters.

BTW, before everyone started overusing "folks," it, too, was considered regional.

Journeyman

(15,001 posts)
16. My grandmother used "folks," as did most of the folks in my extended family . . .
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 06:18 PM
Nov 2015

Folks are people in general, sometimes country or poor folk, oft times the composite of the general society around us, the common people from which we all sprang. It can be your kinfolk, of course, or just your parents, your folks who set you on the paths of the world. And it can be the simple, unaffected, open-hearted people you may love the most -- "just folks," and that says it all.

I especially like it when they diddle a tune or three, and regale me with some of the finest music I know: folk music.

It can be "people," too, but I prefer my roots.

 

GummyBearz

(2,931 posts)
29. If you think I made this OP to discuss how your family uses the word folks
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 06:41 PM
Nov 2015

Then I believe the *woosh* sound was so far over your head you didn't hear it

 

GummyBearz

(2,931 posts)
22. Are your folks high ranking figures in government?
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 06:31 PM
Nov 2015

Do they use the term to downsize the effect of an airstrike by referring to people as "some folks"?

If not, then we are on 2 separate pages. My dad's family is grapes of wrath type Okies. I know how folks is used colloquially as I also grew up with it. This isn't about colloquial family dinner table conversations... this is about replacing certain words in order to minimize the effect of a human tragedy.

"We bombed some folks" "We tortured some folks"... oh, doesn't sound too bad now. No big deal, carry on.

That is why I made the OP

 

pintobean

(18,101 posts)
49. They're dead
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:15 PM
Nov 2015

So, no.

I, like many others in this thread, are trying to get you to lighten up.

Hey, if you insist on being angry, go for it. I've got better things to get angry about.

Vinca

(50,170 posts)
23. I dislike its use almost as much as the use of "homeland."
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 06:32 PM
Nov 2015

"Attack on the homeland, "protect the homeland," etc. It sounds Hitler-ish.

 

Aerows

(39,961 posts)
31. Since I'm one of the folks
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 06:42 PM
Nov 2015

that discusses other folks, I'm guessing folks like me will tell you "no".

Laffy Kat

(16,355 posts)
46. Doesn't bother me too much, but I hate..
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:10 PM
Nov 2015

"Gals." It sounds patronizing to me. I know, I know, it is the feminine of "guys" but it bugs me nevertheless. My ex used to say it instead of "girls" because he was TRYING to be less sexist but for whatever reason I thought gals was even worse. I'd tell him, 'just say young women' you can't go wrong.

KT2000

(20,544 posts)
48. Folks is OK with me
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:15 PM
Nov 2015

What the hell is wrong with it? Are people/folks afraid of have a freaking vocabulary? Let's make up derogatory meanings for every word and just quit communicating!! Ridiculous.

Koinos

(2,792 posts)
55. I like folk music, folk culture, folk tales, folklore, folk art.
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:30 PM
Nov 2015

The word "folk" can bear the meaning of "a people" imbued with a certain language or culture.

But it usually means just "people in general" nowadays.

snagglepuss

(12,704 posts)
58. Yes yes and more yes. I loathe that term especially since Shrub used it to
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:31 PM
Nov 2015

on 9/11 to describe the AQ perps.

gollygee

(22,336 posts)
59. Folk is old English, people is middle english
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:33 PM
Nov 2015

So I suppose the old English "folk" came first and was replaced with the Latin-derived "people."

Chitown Kev

(2,197 posts)
66. and here we go!
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:49 PM
Nov 2015
folk (n.) Look up folk at Dictionary.comOld English folc "common people, laity; men; people, nation, tribe; multitude; troop, army," from Proto-Germanic *folkam (cognates: Old Saxon folc, Old Frisian folk, Middle Dutch volc, Dutch volk, Old High German folc, German Volk "people&quot . Perhaps originally "host of warriors:" Compare Old Norse folk "people," also "army, detachment;" and Lithuanian pulkas "crowd," Old Church Slavonic pluku "division of an army," both believed to have been borrowed from Proto-Germanic. Old English folcstede could mean both "dwelling-place" and "battlefield." According to Watkins, from PIE *ple-go-, suffixed form of root *pele- (1) "to fill," which would make it cognate with Greek plethos "people, multitude." Superseded in most senses by people. Generally a collective noun in Middle English, however plural folks is attested from 15c.

Old English folc was commonly used in forming compounds (59 are listed in the Clark Hall dictionary), such as folccwide "popular saying," folcgemot "town or district meeting;" folcwoh "deception of the public." Modern use of folk as an adjective is from c. 1850 (see folklore).


http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=folk&allowed_in_frame=0
 

Android3.14

(5,402 posts)
61. Probably for the sake of word variety
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:39 PM
Nov 2015

People this, people that, people whatever. Folks is a good synonym with a positive connotation.

So no. I do not think the word is overused.

Zen Democrat

(5,901 posts)
67. Why would anyone have a problem with "folks?" I've heard it and used it all my life.
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:49 PM
Nov 2015

It's a warmer word than "people" as it connotes family or clan.

My Texas grandmother taught me eons ago, that

if you and your folks love me and my folks
like me and my folks love you and your folks
then never was folks since folks was folks love folks
like me and my folks love you and your folks

It's downright folksy.

Greybnk48

(10,148 posts)
69. Dubya Bush and his spinners did that after 911.
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 07:53 PM
Nov 2015

They even, jarringly, referred to the terrorists as "folks," ffs. The word revolts me now because that usage came out of a right wing "stink tank" as one that would somehow make Bush/Cheney and the repukes look better.

peacefreak

(2,939 posts)
74. I'll take folks over
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 08:55 PM
Nov 2015

Homeland. That's a half step away from Motherland. I don't care for the connotations of that.

forsaken mortal

(112 posts)
82. When certain people use it
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 09:58 PM
Nov 2015

It usually sounds like a phony attempt to connect to the masses to me when politicians use that word, especially when they come from elite backgrounds and education. I seriously doubt that is a word you find in common use in those circles. They just use it to make themselves sound like they're one of the salt of the earth types.

ecstatic

(32,566 posts)
83. I've used both. Folks is more informal or
Mon Nov 16, 2015, 10:12 PM
Nov 2015

referring to specific people or people I'm very familiar with. "People" is more formal, detached. "Folks" has has a friendlier vibe--for example, if labeling a group by race, which phrase sounds less threatening: white people or white folks?

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