orc

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɔɹk/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɔːk/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)k

From Middle French orque, Italian orca, and their source, Latin orca (“type of whale”).

orc (plural orcs)

1. Any of several large, ferocious sea creatures, now especially the killer whale. [from 16th c.]

Probably from Italian orco (“man-eating giant”); later revived by J. R. R. Tolkien, partly after Old English orc (“demon”); both from Latin orcus (“underworld”). Doublet of ogre.

orc (plural orcs)

1. (fantasy, mythology) A mythical evil monstrous humanoid creature, usually quite aggressive and often green. [from 17th c.]
   • 1656, Samuel Holland, Don Zara del Fogo, I.1:

     Who at one stroke didst pare away three heads from off the shoulders of an Orke, begotten by an Incubus.

   • 1834, "The National Fairy Mythology of England" in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 10, p. 53:

     The chief exploit of the hero, Beowulf the Great, is the destruction of the two monsters Grendel and his mother; both like most of the evil beings in the old times, dwellers in the fens and the waters; and both, moreover, as some Christian bard has taken care to inform us, of "Cain's kin," as were also the eotens, and the elves, and the orcs (eótenas, and ylfe, and orcneas).

   • 1954, JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring:

     There was a flash like flame and the helm burst asunder. The orc fell with cloven head.

2. (fantasy, Japan) A porcine humanoid monster larger than humans, sometimes pink. (found in Japanese pop-culture and called "orc" when imported to the West)

• greenskin

• ogre
• goblin
• troll

• COR, CRO, CoR, Cor., OCR, ROC, cor, cor-, roc

orc m (plural orcs)

1. An orc.

• IPA^(key): /ork/

Compare Old Saxon ork.

orc m

1. Cup, tankard.

From Latin orcus.

orc m

1. Demon.
2. Hell.

From Proto-Indo-European *pórḱos. Cognate with Latin porcus and English farrow.

orc m

1. piglet

• Irish: arc

C. Marstrander, E. G. Quin et al., editors (1913–76), “orc”, in Dictionary of the Irish Language: Based Mainly on Old and Middle Irish Materials, Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, →ISBN

orc m (plural orcs)

1. (fantasy) orc (evil, monstrous humanoid creature)