Folklore
mid 19th century: from folk + lore1.
wiktionary
From folk + lore, coined in 1846 by William Thoms to replace terms such as "popular antiquities". Thoms imitated German terms such as Volklehre(“people's customs”) and Volksüberlieferung ("popular tradition"). Compare also Old English folclar ("popular instruction; homily") and West Frisian folkloare(“folklore”).
etymonline
folklore (n.)
"traditional beliefs and customs of the common people," 1846, coined by antiquarian William J. Thoms (1803-1885) as an Anglo-Saxonism (replacing popular antiquities) in imitation of German compounds in Volk- and first published in the Athenaeum of Aug. 22, 1846; see folk + lore. Old English folclar meant "homily."
This word revived folk in a modern sense of "of the common people, whose culture is handed down orally," and opened up a flood of compound formations: Folk art (1892), folk-hero (1874), folk-medicine (1877), folk-tale (1850; Old English folctalu meant "genealogy"), folk-song (1847, "a song of the people," translating German Volkslied), folk-singer (1876), folk-dance (1877).
