Folces

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. An Old English genitive form of the word for people, meaning belonging to or characteristic of a nation or community
2. The possessive form of the Old English noun for a people, used to indicate something of or belonging to a community
3. A archaic inflection of the Old English word for a nation or throng, expressing ownership or origin among a people

Etymology: Folces is the genitive singular of Old English "folc", meaning "people", "nation" or "a crowd of people". Its meaning is simply "of the people" or "of the nation", so it appears in phrases like "folces wuldor" (the glory of the people) in Old English poetry. Modern English has no descendant of this form: the word survives today only as "folk", which descends from the nominative "folc" and kept its basic sense of a group of people through the centuries. The root is Germanic, shared with Old Saxon "folk", Old High German "folc" and Old Norse "folk", all meaning a company or host of people. Its deeper ancestry is uncertain, and the proposed Indo-European roots are speculative, so it is best to treat "folk" as a native Germanic word that English has inherited continuously since the earliest records.

Synonyms: people, nation