From: Jeff Davis (jrd1415@yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Jun 20 2003 - 14:21:43 MDT
Am I the only one to notice the rather remarkable
coincidence that this thread, about the lineage of
ilk, having mutated from commentary regarding the ilk
that bilk, has been promoted by none other than
"bilk" himself (actually "BillK")?
Just a thought.
--- BillK <bill@wkidston.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> Sorry Steve
>
> The dictionaries and common usage agree with
> Damien's use of ilk. You
> are correct about the origins of ilk, but not how it
> is commonly used in
> English from 19th century onwards.
>
> In Canada, of course, you have to beware of ilk
> wandering in front of
> you on the highway.
>
> BillK
>
>
> Re: ilk
> (from Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
> ilk noun [S] MAINLY DISAPPROVING
> a particular type:
> The worst of her criticism was reserved for
> journalists, photographers
> and others of their ilk.
>
>
> The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English
> Language: Fourth
> Edition. 2000.
> ...Type or kind: can't trust people of that ilk.
> 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- in
> Indo-European Roots.]
>
> 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.
>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 14:31:25 MDT