The word "ilk" and its abuses

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Fri Sep 1 10:06:40 PDT 2000


On Thu, 31 Aug 2000, Daniel Davies wrote:


> Just to recap; "Ilk" is an Old Scots word meaning
> "same". [I.e., having the same last name, used of landed families]

The OED agrees with you that using the word to mean people who are "coming from the same place," or "or the same tribe" is somehow erroneous rather than just a dead metaphor. (I guess because it was mistaken in the beginning). But they differ in saying that the word derives from Gothic rather than Scots. Is that perhaps a nationalist distinction -- they call Goths whom you call Old Scots? Their earliest cite is 805, which is pretty impressive. Or would be, if Goth words didn't look totally made up.

Michael

__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com



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