The Old English word orcneas helped inspire J.R.R. Tolkien’s term “orc.”
The word appears in the Old English poem Beowulf, in the phrase “orcneas,” which is associated with monsters or evil beings descended from Cain. Tolkien was a major scholar of Old English, and his fiction frequently reworked vocabulary and imagery from Germanic and medieval literature.
Tolkien’s orcs are not simply copied from one earlier creature. Across his writings, he develops them as corrupted and militarized beings serving powerful evil forces. Their origins and moral status vary between drafts and posthumous texts, which is why discussions of orcs can become complicated. The etymological connection to orcneas is firm, but it does not mean Tolkien’s entire concept was taken directly from Beowulf.