Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a people, transmitted orally.
  • noun The comparative study of folk knowledge and culture.
  • noun A body of widely accepted but usually specious notions about a place, a group, or an institution.
  • noun A popular but unfounded belief.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The lore of the common people; the traditional beliefs and customs of the people, especially such as are obsolete or archaic; traditional knowledge; popular superstitions, tales, traditions, or legends.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • Tales, legends, or superstitions long current among the people; the unwritten literature of a culture, such as stories, proverbs, riddles and songs.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The tales, legends and superstitions of a particular ethnic population.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the unwritten lore (stories and proverbs and riddles and songs) of a culture

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

compound of folk + lore, coined in 1846 by William Thoms to replace terms such as "popular antiquities". Thoms imitated German terms such as Volksüberlieferung ("popular tradition").

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Examples

  • On the same principle, why should they not apply the term folklore to the myths and stories that make up the body of

    Unwritten Literature of Hawaii The Sacred Songs of the Hula Nathaniel Bright Emerson 1877

  • The present author reserves the term folklore for application to those unappropriated scraps of popular song, story, myth, and superstition that have drifted down the stream of antiquity and that reach us in the scrap-bag of popular memory, often bearing in their battered forms the evidence of long use.

    Unwritten Literature of Hawaii The Sacred Songs of the Hula Nathaniel Bright Emerson 1877

  • This is the lesson, I think, of what we call folklore or anthropology, which to many seems trivial, to many seems dull.

    Adventures Among Books Andrew Lang 1878

  • Japanese folklore is wonderfully rich, and Mizuki is considered a self-taught expert on the subject.

    Ed’s NYAF Convention Report » Manga Worth Reading 2009

  • The Maid of the Mist, in addition to having ties with local native folklore, is the tugboat that takes tourists down about as close to the bottom of Niagara Falls as anyone would ever want to go.

    Writing Question: Titles odysseyworkshop 2009

  • They also will work with your measurements you supply, but folklore is the probability of getting a good fit is much better if you are scanned.

    tingilinde: 2009

  • A legendary British monarch, Arthur has appeared in folklore through the ages and has influenced culture, art, and even military in countless ways.

    100 Greatest Fictional Characters #25-21 | Fandomania 2009

  • They also will work with your measurements you supply, but folklore is the probability of getting a good fit is much better if you are scanned.

    towards clothing that fits 2009

  • He avoids obvious statements in his movies, which share a hypnotic, nonlinear quality as well as an interest in Thai folklore and beliefs.

    Asia in Cannes Lina Yoon 2010

  • I have a special interest in folklore and collect nursery rhyme books.

    Bibliophile essay contest - Entrant #12 2008

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