Peuple—that part of a nation considered as opposed to the classes among whom there is either more ease or more education: Il y a le peuple qui est opposé aux grands. C’est la populace et la multitude.[8]
In Middle English the word people was already a synonym for folc: “A Blysful lyf, Ledden the peoples in the former age” (Chaucer).
In Modern English the word people has almost entirely displaced Volk except in colloquial or archaic speech. Like Volk in its fundamental sense we have:
People—a body of persons composing a community, tribe, race, or nation.
People—persons in relation to a superior, or to some one to whom they belong.
People—the common people, the commonality; the mass of the community as distinguished from the nobility and ruling, or official, classes, etc. “A people’s voice! We are a people yet” (Tennyson).
CHAPTER II
CONCEPTIONS OF VOLK AS SEEN IN HERDER’S USE OF THE TERM
I
Volk is that part of a nation which is the governed class as distinct from those who are above them in authority and who stand as the ruling class; i.e., the governed as separate from the governing.