I Like Your Ilk

       Running into, and noticing, words like "ilk," one can only wonder, whence cometh? 

       Merriam-Webster in discussing its source used the term "prehistoric compound" and made me begin thinking of alchemy, Medieval potions, and other things of that ilk--but there we are, with the word in question, "ilk."

       It turns out, using the Indo-European roots in the Appendix of the American Heritage Dictionary. we can see that ilk is from Old English ilca, "same," which is with high probability from Germanic is-lik-, "same." 

       And there you have it, if is-lik- is altered through usage, as will happen with language, it could become the abbreviated and compounded (put together) word "ilk."

       (Apologies to alchemical compounds--which are of a different ilk.)