- ogre
- "man-eating giant," 1713, hogre (in a translation of a Fr. version of the Arabian Nights), from Fr. ogre, first used in Perrault's "Contes," 1697. and perhaps formed by him from It. orco "demon, monster," from L. Orcus "Hades," perhaps via an It. dialect. In Eng., more literary than colloquial. The conjecture that it is a from Byzantine Ogur "Hungarian" or some other version of that people's name (perhaps via confusion with the bloodthirsty Huns), lacks historical evidence.