just folks

alternative just-folks

1. idiomaticpluralplural onlysometimesOrdinary, unpretentious people; an ordinary, unpretentious person.

   "She has gone from being just folks to being a bit imperial, assuming a bit more of a queenly role," said Ms. Allgor.

   2005 January 11, Ruth La Ferla, “What the First Lady Will Wear”, in New York Times, retrieved 04 Dec 2012

   2 more examples

   "You still think they come all boxed, sorted, and labeled, do you?" he said. "And that they aren't ‘just folks’ at all?" "Yes, I still think so. They never seem a bit like ‘folks’ to me. It's their business to sit up there stiff and solemn and stern."

   1913, Eleanor H. Porter, chapter 21, in The Sunbridge Girls at Six Star Ranch

   He was happy . . . to be going out to a restaurant without having to sign books or talk to students about Whitman and Melville. . . . Idolized Bech loved, at the end of a long day impersonating himself, being just folks.

   1999, John Updike, Bech at Bay, →ISBN, page 24

   Synonyms: just plain folks, regular folks

2. attributiveidiomaticpluralplural onlysometimes hyphenatedUnpretentious, informal, down-to-earth.

   Even his mussed cravat and cow licked hair had a "just folks" quality.

   1961, Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, New York: Avon, →OCLC, page 43

   1 more example

   George Bush's attempt at just-folks normalcy was undermined when he turned a blind eye to his chief of staff flying military jets to private appointments.

   2001 June 24, Margaret Carlson, “Shear Dismay”, in Time