Google Docs will “warn you away from inappropriate words”

Re:Google Docs will “warn you away from inappropriate words” by mpalczewski on Tuesday April 19, 2022 @03:52PM (#31088104)

I've always understood "folks" to mean parents. Not sure I understand how this is a better term.

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Re:Google Docs will “warn you away from inappropriate words” by mdoms on Tuesday April 19, 2022 @04:22PM (#31088500)

Being asked to use "folks" in Australia was frankly bizarre. It's not a word anyone uses over there and would be considered a severe Americanism. Pretty sure that suggestion came from our Texas staff, not the Californians.

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Re:Google Docs will “warn you away from inappropriate words” by reaperducer on Tuesday April 19, 2022 @05:01PM (#31089087)

Pretty sure that suggestion came from our Texas staff, not the Californians.

Fortunately, Austin isn't representative of the majority of Texas, or America. It's like Portland, but with better weather.

(Just last week I learned that "Keep Austin Weird" predates "Keep Portland Weird" by five years.)

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Re:Google Docs will “warn you away from inappropriate words” by deathanatos on Tuesday April 19, 2022 @04:24PM (#31088541)

Depends on context:

> Hey folks, what's the status of that document?

Just means the people being addressed.

> Are your folks coming to dinner?

is, "Are your parents coming to dinner?"

Wiktionary lists both as definitions: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/folks#Etymology_1

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Re:Google Docs will “warn you away from inappropriate words” by melissalobos on Tuesday April 19, 2022 @05:08PM (#31089203)

> Obama: 'We tortured some folks'

https://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/john-brennan-torture-...

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Re:Google Docs will “warn you away from inappropriate words” by grumpymouse on Tuesday April 19, 2022 @04:59PM (#31089042)

I can’t hear ‘folks’ without thinking of Neddie Seagoon from The Goon Show. Probably not what proponents of the word are going for, the show being from the 1950s and in many ways ‘of its time’.

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Re:Google Docs will “warn you away from inappropriate words” by nkurz on Tuesday April 19, 2022 @04:19PM (#31088449)

I think your understanding is mistaken, or at least regional. While it can mean "parents" when used in the plural with a possessive ("my folks", "your folks", sometimes even "the folks"), in modern American English it's as commonly just a synonym for "people".

Using "folks" (especially in the plural) to mean people can be rather "folksy", though, and I wouldn't be too surprised if some textbook or dictionary mentioned just the "parent" definition. Did you learn it this way as a second language, or as a native speaker somewhere non-American?

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Re:Google Docs will “warn you away from inappropriate words” by johnny22 on Tuesday April 19, 2022 @04:10PM (#31088343)

Folks has been used to describe a group of people in the southern US for a long time. In pop culture it was used like that by Porky Pig at the end of Looney Toons with "That's all, Folks!" (i couldn't remember the how the stutter goes though)

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