Other forms: ogres
An ogre is a large cruel man-eating giant of stories. A wicked ogre, the ogre's castle, hunted by an ogre.
The female is an ogress. Ogres appear in fairy tales from Perrault onwards, and the modern children's version is comic rather than frightening. Figuratively, an ogre is somebody harsh and frightening in authority: the ogre in accounts. Note ogreish; and that ogre entered English through the French fairy tales of the 1690s, which is a surprisingly late date for a monster.
1nounogreA large cruel man-eating giant of stories.
“The children screamed as the ogre in the pantomime stomped across the stage.”
2nounharshA harsh and frightening person in authority.
“He was the ogre of that department for about twenty years.”
ogre is a monster of stories.
French ogre probably comes from Latin Orcus, a god of the underworld, whose name also survives in the orcs of modern fantasy. The monster and the death god are the same figure at a distance of two thousand years.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂erk-
Ancient Greek
Ὅρκος
Latin
Orcus — god of the underworld
French
ogre
English, today
ogre
Built from
First attested in the 18th century, borrowed from French ogre, from Latin Orcus (“god of the underworld”), from Ancient Greek Ὅρκος, the personified demon of oaths (ὅρκος (“oath”)) who inflicts punishment upon oath-breakers. a doublet of orc and Orcus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Myths & Legends, Fairy Tales & Folklore