Folklore
The traditional stories, sayings, customs and beliefs of a group, passed on by word of mouth and example.
Also: folk tradition, popular tradition, folkloristics
William Thoms coined the word in 1846 to replace popular antiquities. Folklorists collect and study tales, ballads, proverbs, riddles, customs, charms and belief about ghosts, fairies, witches and the evil eye. Much magic sits here: the household cure, the weather sign, the story told to explain a ritual. The field has had its own history, with nineteenth-century collectors sometimes treating living people as survivals from the past, and with national movements shaping what was gathered. Modern folkloristics studies how traditions change, who tells them and what they do for a community. Folklore is not the same as falsehood, and many such traditions are held with conviction.