Meanings
volk1
- South Africapluralplural onlyThe Afrikaner people.
The lover, Tertius […] is a journalist regarded by many of his family as a traitor to the volk.
2012, Nadine Gordimer, No Time Like the Present, Bloomsbury, published 2013, page 22
volk2
- alternativedialectalobsoletepluralplural onlyAlternative form of folk.
Edg. Good Gentleman goe your gate, and let poore volke paſſe: […]
c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi], page 304, column 21 more example
No doubt a mampus of volk of our own rank will be down here in their carriages as soon as 'tis known.
1912, Thomas Hardy, chapter III, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman […] (The Works of Thomas Hardy in Prose and Verse), Wessex edition, London: Macmillan and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the first (The Maiden), page 21
Volk3
- A surname.
Origin
volk · noun
- Afrikaansvolk
- Englishvolk
Borrowed from Afrikaans volk. Doublet of folk.
More words from Afrikaans
Full word history & related roots →volk · noun
From Middle English volk, southern form of folk; compare vixen.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
volk. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/volk
“volk.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/volk. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “volk,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/volk.
Source: volk on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.