Also (now rare) -folks. [f. WORK sb. + FOLK sb. Cf. Du. werkvolk.] WORKPEOPLE, esp. farm laborers.
c. 1475. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 285. That syche wyrfolk be payd in good moné.
1566. Engl. Ch. Furniture (Peacock, 1866), 114. One sacringe bell—wch Mr Edmond Haselwood … vsed in his house (as he said) to call worckfolke to dinner.
1572. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 164. Wages by him payd to 214 woorkfolkes.
1578. Bk. Chr. Prayers, 88 b. We beseech thee (O thou Lord of the haruest) send workfolks into thy haruest.
1600. Surflet, Country Farm, II. I. 327. At the discretion of the gardener,… according as his number of workefolkes is more or lesse.
1612. S’hampton Assembly Bks. (1924), III. 40. Theis seargmakers … were … desiered to paie good English money to their worcke folkes.
1702. Guide for Constables, 30. Clothiers must pay their … workfolks their wages in ready money.
1828. Craven Gloss., Wark-folk, labourers.
1849. Rock, Ch. Fathers, II. vii. 411. The lowliest work-folk in the town.
1883. T. Hardy, in Longman’s Mag., July, 255. The regular farmer’s labourers—‘workfolk’ as they call themselves.
1891. J. Higgins, in Daily News, 26 Aug., 6/4. A slight improvement in the conditions under which farm workfolks live would keep a full supply of ‘hands’ on the land.
1902. Athenæum, 20 Dec., 831/3. The writer … had talked and smoked with the workfolk in their public houses, homes, and workhouses.
