- ilk
- Ⅰ. ilk1 (ĭlk)n. ▸ Type or kind: »
can't trust people of that ilk.
pron. Scots ▸ The same. Used following a name to indicate that the one named resides in an area bearing the same name: »Duncan of that ilk.
╂ [Middle English ilke, same, from Old English ilca; see i-.]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.Ⅱ. ilk2 (ĭlk)adj. ▸ Variant of ILKA(Cf. ↑ilka).Ⅲ. il·ka (ĭl’kə) also ilk (ĭlk)adj. Scots ▸ Each; every.╂ [Middle English ilk a, each one : ilk (variant of ech, each; see EACH(Cf. ↑each)) + a, one, a; see A(Cf. ↑a)2.]
Word Histories. 2014.
