General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDoes anyone else think the word "folks" is getting over used?
I swear every time something happens, it happens to "folks". Why has the word "people" been replaced?
NutmegYankee
(16,177 posts)One_Life_To_Give
(6,036 posts)His "Howdy Folks" intro has led to numinous uses of the phrase.
LiberalArkie
(15,686 posts)tazkcmo
(7,286 posts)I'm o.k. with it, too. I use the word "folks" all the time. Used it in Nebraska, Germany AND Colorado.
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)kskiska
(27,041 posts)former9thward
(31,802 posts)Doubt that.
RKP5637
(67,032 posts)Atman
(31,464 posts)It's just a word.
TacoD
(581 posts)Haven't noticed other "folks" overusing it.
GummyBearz
(2,931 posts)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)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)be natural to him. After he started, everyone started using it, even when it was not appropriate.
redwitch
(14,933 posts)Sorry for shouting.
Oh and thanks Dubya. He started the folks thing.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I don't know why, but it just drives me up the wall!
NJCher
(35,427 posts)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)"folks" is friendlier.
"Come on, folks, calm down."
vs.
"Come on, people, calm down."
merrily
(45,251 posts)CTyankee
(63,771 posts)that wasn't Ann Romney's message...
Glassunion
(10,201 posts)Just a word.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Everyone is using it, including when they shouldn't.
What the hell was so bad about "people?"
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)is a regional speech thing.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)Chitown Kev
(2,197 posts)Maybe "you guys" is an UP thing
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)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)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)between the midwest and the south,lots of movement going both ways.
Just for fun,the pop/soda map:
merrily
(45,251 posts)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?"
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)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.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)Chitown Kev
(2,197 posts)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.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)Chitown Kev
(2,197 posts)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!
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)GummyBearz
(2,931 posts)Soda or coke are both valid. Anyone who calls it "pop" is friggin terrorist! :p
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)make me feel all jihad ragey.
GummyBearz
(2,931 posts)And there will be no one left to speak up for me
merrily
(45,251 posts)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.
TacoD
(581 posts)Hey can I use your guys's phone for a sec?
Journeyman
(15,001 posts)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)Then I believe the *woosh* sound was so far over your head you didn't hear it
pintobean
(18,101 posts)that folks is folks.
GummyBearz
(2,931 posts)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)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.
GummyBearz
(2,931 posts)You lightened me up good
pintobean
(18,101 posts)GummyBearz
(2,931 posts)Don't worry about it
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)Gidney N Cloyd
(19,781 posts)Vinca
(50,170 posts)"Attack on the homeland, "protect the homeland," etc. It sounds Hitler-ish.
Chitown Kev
(2,197 posts)<iframe width="420" height="315" src="
" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Ed Suspicious
(8,879 posts)redwitch
(14,933 posts)Porky Pig may say it too.
still_one
(91,951 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Aerows
(39,961 posts)that discusses other folks, I'm guessing folks like me will tell you "no".
global1
(25,167 posts)thanks to "Townspeople United".
merrily
(45,251 posts)Enrique
(27,461 posts)Travis_0004
(5,417 posts)About me, about you. . .
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)but I'm stuck up that way.
Laffy Kat
(16,355 posts)"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)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.
matt819
(10,749 posts)Can't stand it.
Koinos
(2,792 posts)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.
GoneOffShore
(17,309 posts)snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)on 9/11 to describe the AQ perps.
gollygee
(22,336 posts)So I suppose the old English "folk" came first and was replaced with the Latin-derived "people."
Chitown Kev
(2,197 posts)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" . 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
gollygee
(22,336 posts)Kindred spirit!
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)I use it a lot and will continue to. Lol
Android3.14
(5,402 posts)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)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)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.
Neoma
(10,039 posts)peacefreak
(2,939 posts)Homeland. That's a half step away from Motherland. I don't care for the connotations of that.
ladjf
(17,320 posts)AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)choie
(4,102 posts)Pres Obama does it all the time and it grates on my nerves
forsaken mortal
(112 posts)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)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?