Editing Orc (section)

==Old English==

The Latin: Orcus is glossed as “Orc, þyrs, oððe hel-deofol”[a] (“Goblin, spectre, or hell-devil”) in the 10th century Old English Cleopatra Glossary, about which Thomas Wright wrote, “Orcus was the name for Pluto, the god of the infernal regions, hence we can easily understand the explanation of hel-deofol. Orc, in Anglo-Saxon, like thyrs, means a spectre, or goblin.” The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal defines ork in the closely related Old Dutch language as a verslindend monster (“devouring monster”), and points at a possible origin in the Old Dutch nork “petulant, crabbed, evil person”.