ilk

Ilk is defined as a type or kind of people or things.

(noun)

When you encounter a very rude person and you say "I can't stand people like him," this is an example of a situation where you could say that you cannot stand people of his ilk.

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See ilk in Webster's New World College Dictionary

adjective

Obsolete same; like

Origin: Scot dial. < ME ilke < OE ilca, same; prob. < *ī-līca < ī-, lit., the + -lica, like: see like

noun

kind; sort; class: only in , of the same sort or class: from a misunderstanding of the phrase of that ilk as used in Scotland to mean “of the same name (as the place he owns or from which he comes)” [MacDonald of that ilk (i.e., MacDonald of MacDonald)] and often used disparagingly

adjective

Chiefly Scot. each; every
also ilka

Origin: ME, Northern & Midlands var. of ilch, ælch < OE ælc: see each

See ilk in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun
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.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English ilke, same

Origin: , from Old English ilca; see i- in Indo-European roots

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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.

adjective
Variant of ilka.

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