People who live in cities; urban residents collectively, often contrasted with country folk or rural people.
Compound of city and folk (Old English folc, from Germanic roots meaning 'people,' 'community'). Emerged as a colloquial term to distinguish urban populations from rural ones.
The distinction between 'cityfolk' and 'country folk' reveals how recently humans became mostly urban—for most of history, 'folk' meant rural people, and city dwellers were the oddity, so this word had to be invented when cities grew larger.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.