type or kind

I used this word in an email today without giving any thought to the word. It was only after I sent the message that I realized how ridiculous it sounded. It’s a funny word, ilk. Here is a little word history from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: “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.”