Etymologically
Log in

ogre

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 17 October 2026 at 18:22. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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]
  • 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)