ogre

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɔɡʁ/^[1]

Forms

ogre m (plural ogres, feminine ogresse)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French ogre,^[1] probably an alteration of an unattested *orc, inherited from Latin Orcus (“god of the underworld; the underworld”), with the “r” moved, perhaps under the influence of words such as bougre.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Latin name may itself be Etruscan.^[3][7] The explanation is supported by Romance words such as Italian orco (“bogeyman”), Sardinian orcu (“demon”), Catalan orc (“tiresome person”) and Old Spanish “huerco” “hell, devil”, and by a sermon of Saint Eligius (died 659), who forbade people to call on Orcus together with Neptune and Diana.^[2][3][4][8]

The older idea that “ogre” comes from “Hongre” “Hungarian”, after the Hungarian raids in the West in the Middle Ages, is rejected by the TLFi, Rey and Littré;^[2][3][7] Rey adds that neither explanation accounts well for the modern form.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Chrétien de Troyes's Perceval (1181–1190) an ogre is a ferocious heathen.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

About 1300 the word took its present sense, a giant of fairy tales who feeds on human flesh.^[2][3][4] The feminine ogresse spread from Perrault's Petit Poucet (1697), displacing ogrine (1694).^[2][3]

Manger comme un ogre “to eat enormously” is in the Académie in 1740, and an ogre is a glutton from 1819.^[2][9] From 1740 (Voltaire) it is also a cruel, frightening person, and royalists called Napoleon l'ogre de Corse because his wars devoured the young men of France.^[2][10] In 19th-century slang an ogre was a moneylender or a dealer in conscripts' replacements.^[7]

Timeline

• 1181–1190 – A ferocious heathen (Chrétien de Troyes).^[2][3]
• c. 1300 – A man-eating giant of fairy tales.^[2][4]
• 1694 – Ogrine.^[2][3]
• 1697 – Ogresse (Perrault).^[2][3]
• 1740 – Il mange comme un ogre (Académie); a cruel person (Voltaire).^[2]
• 1819 – A big eater.^[2]
• 1845 – Ogrerie.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ogre, a giant of fairy tales who eats human flesh.^[10][11]
2. Manger comme un ogre, avoir un appétit d'ogre: to eat enormously.^[10][11]
3. (familiar) A big eater, a glutton.^[11][9]
4. (literary) A cruel, frightening person.^[11][2]

Related words

• orque
• lutin
• Latin Orcus
• English ogre

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 394a
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)