I happened to use the word, ilk yesterday, meaning "kind, class, or family," then got to wondering just where we got the word. It seems that there are actually two etymologies, and two definitions, the second being "like." Does anyone know if the one derives from the other?

Interesting question, Asa. It seems that the more recent definition "kind" came from the older meaning of the word, being "same".

I found was from AHD:

[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.

"Does anyone know if the one derives from the other?"

Damn fine question. Online Etymology says,

quote:

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ilk - O.E. ilca "same" (n. and adj.), probably from demonstrative particle i- + -lic "form." Implies coincidence of name and estate, as in Lundie of Lundie; applied usually to families, so by 19c. began to be used with meaning "family," then broadening to "type, sort."

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While not about the etymology of "ilk", here is Ogden Nash's use of it:

The Cow

The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other, milk.