The Old English word orcneas influenced J.R.R. Tolkien’s use of the creature-name “orc.”
The word appears in the Old English poem Beowulf, in a passage describing monstrous beings descended from Cain. Tolkien was a leading philologist and an Old English scholar, so words from early Germanic literature were especially important to his imagination and linguistic work.
Tolkien’s orcs are enemies of the Free Peoples and are portrayed as corrupted or bred servants of dark powers. Their exact origins and nature vary across Tolkien’s writings, and Tolkien continued to reconsider the theological and biological implications of the concept.
The word is sometimes treated as simply equivalent to the modern English “orc,” but Tolkien’s use developed its own Middle-earth meaning. Another common confusion is with “ogre” or with the name of a specific character; “orc” is a category of creature, not the personal name of one individual.