Probably from Italian orco (“man-eating giant”); later revived by J. R. R. Tolkien, partly after Old English orc, which he took to mean "demon". Both are from Latin Orcus (“the underworld; the god Pluto”). Doublet of ogre and Orcus.
Etymology 2 sense 2 is a semantic loan from Ukrainian орк (ork, “evil monstrous humanoid creature; orc”) or Russian орк (ork), both from English orc and possibly under the influence of Russian у́рка (úrka, “criminal”, prison slang). Popularized in English in 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
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},
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},
{
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"4": "",
"5": "man-eating giant"
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},
{
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{
"name": "der",
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"4": "",
"5": "the underworld; the god Pluto"
},
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},
{
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"3": "Orcus"
},
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},
{
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"2": "uk",
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"4": "",
"5": "evil monstrous humanoid creature; orc",
"senseid": "Russian"
},
"expansion": "Etymology 2 sense 2 is a semantic loan from Ukrainian орк (ork, “evil monstrous humanoid creature; orc”)"
},
{
"name": "sl",
"args": {
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"2": "ru",
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"notext": "1"
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"expansion": "Russian орк (ork)"
},
{
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"3": "orc"
},
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},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
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"2": "ru",
"3": "у́рка",
"4": "",
"5": "criminal",
"pos": "prison slang"
},
"expansion": "Russian у́рка (úrka, “criminal”, prison slang)"
}
],
"links": [
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"orco",
"orco#Italian"
],
[
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"references": [],
"descendants": [
{
"lang": "Catalan",
"lang_code": "ca",
"word": "orc",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Czech",
"lang_code": "cs",
"word": "ork",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Danish",
"lang_code": "da",
"word": "ork",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Dutch",
"lang_code": "nl",
"word": "ork",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Estonian",
"lang_code": "et",
"word": "örk",
"raw_tags": [
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},
{
"lang": "Finnish",
"lang_code": "fi",
"word": "örkki",
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{
"lang": "French",
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},
{
"lang": "Georgian",
"lang_code": "ka",
"word": "ორკი",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "orḳi"
},
{
"lang": "Greek",
"lang_code": "el",
"word": "ορκ",
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"borrowed"
],
"roman": "ork"
},
{
"lang": "Hungarian",
"lang_code": "hu",
"word": "ork",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Icelandic",
"lang_code": "is",
"word": "orki",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Japanese",
"lang_code": "ja",
"word": "オーク",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "ōku"
},
{
"lang": "Korean",
"lang_code": "ko",
"word": "오크",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "okeu"
},
{
"lang": "Latvian",
"lang_code": "lv",
"word": "orks",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Lithuanian",
"lang_code": "lt",
"word": "orkas",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Marathi",
"lang_code": "mr",
"word": "ऑर्क",
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"borrowed"
],
"roman": "ŏrka"
},
{
"lang": "Norwegian",
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"word": "ork",
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"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Norwegian",
"lang_code": "no",
"word": "orc",
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},
{
"lang": "Polish",
"lang_code": "pl",
"word": "ork",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Portuguese",
"lang_code": "pt",
"word": "orc",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Romanian",
"lang_code": "ro",
"word": "orc",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Russian",
"lang_code": "ru",
"word": "орк",
"raw_tags": [
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],
"roman": "ork"
},
{
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"lang_code": "sh",
"word": "ork",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
"lang_code": "sh",
"word": "орк",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Swedish",
"lang_code": "sv",
"word": "ork",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
]
},
{
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"lang_code": "uk",
"word": "орк",
"raw_tags": [
"borrowed"
],
"roman": "ork"
}
],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "noun",
"glosses": [
"A mythical evil monstrous humanoid creature, usually quite aggressive and often green.",
"A Russian soldier or gangster.",
"A Russian person."
],
"tags": [
"derogatory",
"slang",
"Internet",
"broadly",
"ethnic",
"slur"
],
"recordId": "ac476191460cf44095e51866e43bdbd3acf85a4175b7242c82d7c1846cdb5859",
"rawRecordSha256": "260b2c59b3aa56340ebd7af15a6b39ee33ba4de9b09be0c3ca346df4fa70bbff",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 209022
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
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"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 0,
"glosses": 0
}
}