home folks

1 3.4

People from the place you grew up, especially your family

noun
/hoʊm foʊks/

Informal

: gente del hogar

I miss my home folks so much.

Examples

After years abroad, she was excited to visit her home folks during the holidays.
He always calls his home folks on Sundays to catch up with family news.
Moving to the city made him appreciate his home folks even more.
Are your home folks coming to visit?
After moving to the city, she still keeps in touch with her home folks back in the countryside.
Whenever I visit my hometown, I enjoy catching up with the home folks at the local diner.
The family reunion brought together all the home folks who had grown up in the same neighborhood.

Synonyms

homefolk

vshome folks

Archaic

8.1

People from your home area, especially your family

is the same meaning but written as two separate words

home folk

vshome folks

5.1

People from the same town or area as you

focuses more on close family members and tight community ties

local possie

vshome folks

Slang

9.9

A small group of friends from the same area who meet often

refers instead mainly to family and close community rather than casual friends

Surface Forms

home folks singular

home folks plural

Morphology

home + folks

The meaning is transparently built from 'home' (relating to one's hometown or household) + 'folks' (people, often family or community), so a learner who knows both constituents will readily infer 'people from one's home area or family.' The phrase is informal but compositional and parallels constructions in many languages, so it should be comprehensible to a B1 learner.

Etymology

The phrase home folks comes from the simple picture of the people who live in your home, your neighbours and family, your folks. So it means 'people from your home area', especially family or close community.