English
folklore
From folk + lore, coined by British writer William Thoms in 1846 to replace terms such as "popular antiquities".
Proto-Germanic *fulką ‘troop, army’
Proto-West Germanic *folk ‘military, army, troop’
Old English folc ‘the people, especially the common people’
Middle English folk ‘people, folk’
English folk
Proto-Indo-European *leys- ‘to trace, to track’
…
Proto-Germanic *laizō ‘teaching’
Proto-West Germanic *laiʀu
Old English lār ‘teaching, learning, education’
Middle English lore ‘Education or teaching’
English lore
The story
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’).
Today it means
noun The tales, legends, superstitions, and traditions of a particular ethnic population.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / folklore