LittleDan wrote:
I (and equally my parents) was unaware that
'ilk'
carried any negative connotations. I thought ilk just
meant 'other people like you and possibly group with
you for whatever discussed similarity.
The meaning is probably in flux.
Remember that some dictionaries don't carry this meaning at all,
and none of the ones that I saw marked it as negative.
(Although apparently Anthère's translation dictionary did.)
We should probably save these discussion for future work at Wiktionary.
-- Toby