ilk

Meanings

A type, race or category; a group of entities that have common characteristics such that they may be grouped together.

From Middle English ilke, from Old English ilca, conjectured as from Proto-Germanic *ilīkaz, a compound of *iz and *-līkaz from the noun *līką. Akin to Dutch lichaam, or lijk, body, dead body.
The sense of “type”, “kind” is from the application of the phrase ‘of that ilk’ to families: the word thus came to mean ‘family’.

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