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by garm on March 9th, 2008

garm

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Etymology of word ilk

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  • by keithold is a prodigal bagger on March 9th, 2008

    keithold is a prodigal bagger

    G'day Garm,

    Thank you for your question.

    According to the Oxford English Dictionary, ilk comes from Old English with its first usage in 805 AD.

    Regards

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  • by VSPrasad on March 13th, 2008

    VSPrasad

    Origin: bef. 900; ME ilke, OE ilca (pronoun) the same, equiv. to demonstrative i (c. Goth is he, L is that) + a reduced form of līc

    Word History: When one uses ilk, as in the phrase men of his ilk, one is using a word with an ancient pedigree even though the sense of ilk, "kind or sort," is actually quite recent, having been first recorded at the end of the 18th century. This sense grew out of an older use of ilk in the phrase of that ilk, meaning "of the same place, territorial designation, or name." This phrase was used chiefly in names of landed families, Guthrie of that ilk meaning "Guthrie of Guthrie." "Same" is the fundamental meaning of the word. The ancestors of ilk, Old English ilca and Middle English ilke, were common words, usually appearing with such words as the or that, but the word hardly survived the Middle Ages in those uses.

    http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ilk&r=66

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