Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FOLK-MOTE, n. [Sax. folcmote, folk-meeting.]

An assembly of the people, or of bishops, thanes, aldermen and freemen, to consult respecting public affairs; an annual convention of the people, answering in some measure, to a modem parliament; a word used in England before the Norman conquest, after which the national council was called a parliament. Somner. Spelman. But some authors alledge that the folkmote was an inferior meeting or court.