townspeople

My dictionary defines 'townspeople'/'townsfolk' as all the people who live in a particular town. Does this mean that the following sentence is grammatically incorrect?

Generally, townspeople are richer than country folk.

No. The words can also mean "people who live in towns generally." On the other hand, neither a common word in modern English.

My dictionary defines 'townspeople'/'townsfolk' as all the people who live in a particular town. Does this mean that the following sentence is grammatically incorrect?

Generally, townspeople are richer than country folk.

Grammatically, it's a perfectly good sentence, but we wouldn't now use "townspeople" in it. We'd call them city dwellers.

"City dwellers" isn't a common term in BrE: it brings to mind the term "cave dwellers".👁 Big Grin :D
Besides, "city" is a more specific term in BrE: we have many more towns than we have cities.

An ngram shows that "townspeople" significantly outnumbers "city dwellers"; and the results are similar in both BrE and AmE publications. Could your usage be localised, Parla (region or milieu)? ... Or has it perhaps gained ground in the last five years or so?

Ws👁 Smile :)

Well, Ws, if we wanted to include the suburbs, we'd likely refer to people in urban areas. But we wouldn't use the word "townspeople" in the sentence presented in post #1. (That was the question, not whether the word was okay anywhere.)

Good point, Parla. Sorry, I took my eye off the target for a moment there.👁 Eek! :o
So my ngram results aren't really relevant, because they probably include mostly references to the townspeople of a particular town.

And I agree that "townspeople" wouldn't normally be used as a generic term, such as in the sentence in post #1. I'd probably say "people who live in cities" (or "in towns" or "in urban areas"), though I have to admit that your "city dwellers" is more concise.

I'm not so sure about the validity of the statement, though. I guess it depends on the country in question, but I certainly see more down-and-outs, homeless people and sub-standard living conditions in cities than I ever do in country areas. No doubt statistics would prove me wrong. (But I know ... that wasn't the question! It was nominally about the grammar, though actually about the semantics.👁 Wink ;)
)

Ws👁 Smile :)

xiaokaoy said:

My dictionary defines 'townspeople'/'townsfolk' as all the people who live in a particular town. Does this mean that the following sentence is grammatically incorrect?

Generally, townspeople are richer than country folk.

I don't think "townspeople" is archaic, it's just not common, as others have said.

When I read it, though, I think of "townspeople" in contrast with farmers, so my view is maybe skewed, since I grew up on a farm.

For the context, I might say: City inhabitants are richer than rural inhabitants.

My own slang version: City slickers are richer than country bumpkins.