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orca

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Learned borrowing from Latin orca (“tun, cask; whale”), see there for more. Although the origin is obscure, the sometimes-cited association with orcus (“underworld”) is folk-etymology. Doublet of orc.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈoɹkə/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɔːkə/
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)kə

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

orca (plural orcas or orca)

1. A sea mammal (Orcinus orca) related to dolphins and porpoises, commonly called the killer whale.

   Synonyms: grampus, killer whale, blackfish

   • 1876, Alexander Schultz, “Account of the Fisheries and Seal-Hunting in the White Sea, the Arctic Ocean, and the Caspian Sea”, in United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Part III. Report of the Commissioner for 1873-4 and 1874-5., Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, page 55:

     In the summer, when the weather is calm and beautiful, large flocks of orcæ can be seen approaching the shallow places near the shore, or between the numerous islands of the White Sea. Several fishermen associate for hunting orcæ, each one furnishing a boat, and a large seine made of cords of the thickness of a finger, the meshes being 10½ inches square.

• ork, orc

• ocra, acro-, arco, acro, Caro, AOCR, CRAO, Roca, RAOC, Cora, Arco

Borrowed from Latin orca.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈɔr.kə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈɔɾ.ka]

orca f (plural orques)

1. orca

• “orca”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], 2007 April

From Latin orca.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔɾka/ [ˈɔɾ.kɐ]
• Rhymes: -ɔɾka
• Hyphenation: or‧ca

orca f (plural orcas)

1. orca, killer whale

   Synonym: candorca

• “orca”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025

A compound of orr (“nose”) +‎ száj (“mouth”) → orrszáj, transformed to orca over the centuries.

• IPA^(key): [ˈort͡sɒ]
• Hyphenation: or‧ca
• Rhymes: -t͡sɒ

orca (plural orcák)

1. (archaic) cheek

   Holonym: (face) arc

   • 1844, Sándor Petőfi, translated by John Ridland, János vitéz‎^[1], chapter 4, stanza 5, lines 1-2:

     „Hej, Iluskám! hogyne volnék én halovány, / Mikor szép orcádat utószor látom tán…”

     “Oh, Nelly love! How could I help but look white, / When your lovely face soon will be torn from my sight…”

   • 1872, Mór Jókai, Az arany ember^[2] (Timar’s Two Worlds),^[3] part 1, chapter 2, translated by Mrs. Hegan Kennard:

     A kormányos ölnyi termetű kemény férfi volt, erősen rezes arcszínnel, a két orcáján a pirosság vékony hajszálerek szövevényében fejezte ki magát, miktől a szeme fehére is recés volt.

     The steersman is a six-foot weather-beaten sailor with a very red face, whose color on both cheeks comes from a network of veins with which the white of the eye is also transfused.

• orca in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.

From Old Irish orca.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔɾˠkə/

orca f (genitive singular orcan, nominative plural oircne)

1. (literary) calf (of leg)

   Synonyms: colpa, pluc

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “orca”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “orca”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “orca”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “orca”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2025

From Latin orca.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔr.ka/
• Rhymes: -ɔrka
• Hyphenation: òr‧ca

orca f (plural orche)

1. killer whale; orca

   Synonym: balena assassina

   • 1516, Ludovico Ariosto, “Canto decimo [Canto 10]”, in Orlando Furioso [Raging Roland]‎^[4], Venice: Gabriel Giolito, published 1551, page 41:

     Vi fu legata pur quella mattina,
     Dove venia per trangughiarla viva
     Quel smisurato Mostro Orca marina,
     che di abhorrevole esca si nutriva

     That morning, she was tied up there, where that enormous monster, marine orca, feeding on horrible bait, was coming to swallow her alive

   • 1619, Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, La fiera‎^[5], published 1726, page 198:

     Per quelle cave algose,
     Preda d’orche voraci, e d’onde avare

     Through those caves filled with seaweeds, prey to voracious orcas, and ungenerous waves

Borrowed from Dutch hulk.

• urca, ulca

• IPA^(key): /ˈor.ka/
• Rhymes: -orka
• Hyphenation: ór‧ca

orca f (plural orche)

1. (nautical, historical) hulk (large ship used for transportation)

• orca¹ in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
• orca² in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

• acro, acro-, arco, arcò, caro, ocra, roca

Either borrowed from Ancient Greek ὕρχη (húrkhē, “earthen fish-salting vessel”), or else both borrowed separately from a substrate Mediterranean language. The sense of whale is likely influenced by ὄρυξ (órux, “pickaxe; oryx; narwhal”); it is possible that both ὕρχη (húrkhē) and ὄρυξ (órux) were conflated when borrowed into Latin.^[1]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɔr.ka]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈɔr.ka]

orca f (genitive orcae); first declension

1. orc, orca (kind of whale)
2. butt, tun (large-bellied vessel)

First-declension noun.

• urceus

• Catalan: orca
• Galician: orca
• Italian: orca
• Middle French: orque f
  • French: orque f
  • → English: orc
• Portuguese: orca
• Romanian: orca
• Spanish: orca
• → Dutch: orka
• → English: orca
  • → Cebuano: orca
• → German: Orca
• → Polish: orka, órka (Central Greater Poland)
  • → Kashubian: órka
• → Proto-West Germanic: *ork (see there for further descendants)
• → Serbo-Croatian:
  • Cyrillic script: орца
  • Latin script: orka
• → Translingual: orca

• “orca”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “orca”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "orca", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• orca in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “orca”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “orca”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Learned borrowing from Latin orca (“tun, cask; whale”).

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -ɔʁkɐ, (Portugal) -ɔɾkɐ
• Hyphenation: or‧ca

orca f (plural orcas)

1. orca (Orcinus orca)

   Synonym: baleia-assassina

• “orca”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2025
• “orca”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025

From Latin orca.

• IPA^(key): /ˈoɾka/ [ˈoɾ.ka]

• Audio (Spain):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oɾka
• Syllabification: or‧ca
• Homophone: horca

orca f (plural orcas, masculine orco, masculine plural orcos)

1. orca, killer whale

   Synonym: ballena asesina

• “orca”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

• arco, caro, cora, raco, roca