Orcus

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A deity associated with the underworld in Roman mythology, depicted as a punisher of broken oaths and guardian of the dead
2. A term from mythology that refers to a monstrous creature or spirit, often connected with death and the afterlife
3. Within certain literary contexts, this name may represent a dark, fearsome figure symbolizing destruction or retribution in mythological narratives

Etymology: Orcus was the Roman god of the underworld, and his name is the root of two English words that wandered far from him: "ogre" and "orc." In Roman religion Orcus was a figure of death and punishment, sometimes identified with Pluto, and his name became a byword for the realm of the dead itself. English took the Latin name in its own form, and it survives as the source of the Latin-derived term for a bogeyman-like creature. The surprise lies in the later routes. Through French, Orcus's name passed into the fairy-tale ogre, the hungry giant of folk stories who eats children, a figure far removed from a stern god of the dead. The same Latin name, travelling through a different branch of the family, gave us "orc," the brutish monster of Tolkien's fiction and of fantasy games. Because "ogre" and "orc" share this root, they are doublets: two English words descended from one Latin source by separate paths.