Definify.com

Definition 2024


folk_hero

folk hero

See also: folk-hero

English

Alternative forms

Noun

folk hero (plural folk heroes)

  1. A real or mythical person who is widely revered by ordinary people, for championing their interests, values, or aspirations.
    • 1966 June 10, "Vocational Education: Cowhand School," Time:
      That hallowed American folk hero, the lean cowboy with six-gun at hip, swinging smoothly into the saddle—somehow he never had to go to school to learn that stuff.
    • 1996, Robin Morgan, Sisterhood is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology, ISBN 9781558611603, p. 571 (Google preview):
      Deuladeu Martins is a woman folk-hero dating from the 12th century; she is thought of as a hugely tall and strong woman whose actions were so feared by invaders that, because of her, the country of Portugal itself came into being.
    • 2012 August 18, Lawrence Downes, "As Woody Turns 100, We Protest Too Little," New York Times (retrieved 16 April 2013):
      The American folk hero Woody Guthrie will be honored at the Kennedy Center, but rabble-rousing, not respectability, was his goal.

Translations

See also

References