[Ads-l] folksinger

[Laurence Horn]

Might this have originally been a calque from the German?  (Or at least
from a German?)

LH

On Fri, Jul 14, 2023 at 2:03 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> OED: 1898.
> These refer to poets whose works popular works supposedly give voice to
> their national culture:
>
> 1884 _Daily News_ (Chicago) (Nov. 2) 2:  Even in his own day [Heine] was
> accepted as a folk-singer, and his rhymes found their way to the hearts of
> the people and the lips of the peasantry.
>
>  1896 _Sunday Inter-Ocean_ (Chicago) (July 19) 8: Karl Michael Bellman is
> Sweden's national folk singer and poet, and lived during the time
> of...Gustavus III.
>
>  Figuratively applied to a famous composer:
>
>  1907 _Nome Daily Nugget_ (Dec. 7) 3: A Folk Singer of the North...Edvard
> Grieg.
>
>
> But now we're getting modern:
>
> 1908 _Rock Island [Ill.] Argus_ (Sept. 12) 10 : Her company consists of
> Rita Rich, a folk singer of all nations...."  [Who presumably sang in an
> elite style.]
>
> 1912 _Boston Morning Journal_ (Jan. 23) 9:  Ten whirlwind dancers,
> musicians and folk singers from Russia.
>
> 1917 _New York Times (Dec. 2) IX 3:  Cecil Sharp Publishes His Finds in the
> American South....His enthusiasm for his folk singers carries him far
>
>
> So as early as 1918 there wasn't much natural agreement on what a "folk
> singer" sang or how he sang it.
>
>
> JL
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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