Also -folks. a. People of the (same) country; countrymen, compatriots: usually with possessive; cf. COUNTRY 13. Obs. exc. dial. b. Inhabitants of the rural parts.
1547–64. Bauldwin, Mor. Philos. (Palfr.), I. li. Surely strangers would haue lesse mercy on mee then mine owne country-folke.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par., Luke, Pref. 3. Your … charitie and zele towardes your countrey folkes.
1626. J. Pory, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 331, III. 239. Thrust them and all their countryfolkes out of the Queen’s lodgings.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (1840), II. iv. 95. Though the savages were their own country-folks, yet they were most terribly afraid of them.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxxv. Which at once acknowledged the connection betwixt them as country-folk.
b. 1862. London Rev., 30 Aug., 179. The townsfolk and countryfolk of Derbyshire.
