(historical) A general meeting of the people of a town, shire, etc. of medieval England.
noun
1
0
A general assembly of the people of a town, district, or shire in medieval England.
noun
0
0
(now historical) A general meeting (assembly) of the people of a town, district, or shire.
noun
0
0
Advertisement
Alternative Forms
Alternative Form of folkmoot -
folkmote
Other Word Forms
Noun
Singular:
folkmoot
Plural:
folkmoots
Origin of folkmoot
Middle English from Old English folcmōtfolcfolkfolkmōtmeeting
From
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
From Old English folcġemōt (“meeting of the people of a town or district”), equivalent to folk + moot.
From
Wiktionary
Folkmoot Sentence Examples
In Anglo-Saxon England in the 7th and 8th centuries it seems certain that each of the larger kingdoms, Kent, Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, had its separate witan, or council, but there is a difference of opinion as to whether this was identical with, or distinct from, the folkmoot, in which, theoretically at least, all freemen had the right to appear.
In other words, the folkmoot had become the witan.
He thinks that on the union of the kingdoms the witans were merged into one another, while the folkmoot became the shiremoot.
The shire organization of Kent dates from the time of Aethelstan, the name as well as the boundary being that of the ancient kingdom, though at first probably with the addition of the suffix " shire," the form " Kentshire " occurring in a record of the folkmoot at this date.