# orca
## English
### Etymology

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.

### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /ˈoɹkə/
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈɔːkə/
* Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)kə
* Audio (Canada):(file)

### Noun

orca (plural orcas or orca)
* 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.

#### Derived terms

* Southern resident orca

#### Translations
### See also

* ork, orc

### Anagrams

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

## Catalan
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin orca.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic) [ˈɔr.kə]
* IPA: (Valencia) [ˈɔɾ.ka]

### Noun

orca f (plural orques)
* orca

#### Further reading

* “orca” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

## Galician
### Etymology

From Latin orca.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈɔɾka/ [ˈɔɾ.kɐ]
* Rhymes: -ɔɾka
* Hyphenation: or‧ca

### Noun

orca f (plural orcas)
* orca, killer whale
    Synonym: candorca

#### Further reading

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

## Hungarian
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈort͡sɒ]
* Hyphenation: or‧ca
* Rhymes: -t͡sɒ

### Noun

orca (plural orcák)
* (archaic) cheek
    Holonym: (face) arc
** 1844, Sándor Petőfi, translated by John Ridland, János vitéz‎, 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 (Timar’s Two Worlds), 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.

#### Derived terms

* orcátlan
* álorca

### Further reading

* orca in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

## Irish
### Etymology

From Old Irish orca.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈɔɾˠkə/

### Noun

orca f (genitive singular orcan, nominative plural oircne)
* (literary) calf (of leg)
    Synonyms: colpa, pluc

#### Declension

bare forms
singular
plural
nominative
orca
oircne
vocative
a orca
a oircne
genitive
orcan
orcan
dative
orca orcain (archaic, dialectal)
oircne
forms with the definite article
singular
plural
nominative
an orca
na hoircne
genitive
na horcan
na n-orcan
dative
leis an orca leis an orcain (archaic, dialectal) don orca don orcain (archaic, dialectal)
leis na hoircne :

### Mutation

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish. All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

### Further reading

* 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

## Italian
### Etymology 1

From Latin orca.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈɔr.ka/
* Rhymes: -ɔrka
* Hyphenation: òr‧ca

#### Noun

orca f (plural orche)
* killer whale; orca
    Synonym: balena assassina
** 1516, Ludovico Ariosto, “Canto decimo [Canto 10]”, in Orlando Furioso [Raging Roland]‎, 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 nutrivaThat 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, published 1726, page 198:Per quelle cave algose, Preda d’orche voraci, e d’onde avareThrough those caves filled with seaweeds, prey to voracious orcas, and ungenerous waves

### Etymology 2

Borrowed from Dutch hulk.

#### Alternative forms

* urca, ulca

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈor.ka/
* Rhymes: -orka
* Hyphenation: ór‧ca

#### Noun

orca f (plural orche)
* (nautical, historical) hulk (large ship used for transportation)

### Further reading

* orca$^1$ in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana
* orca$^2$ in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

### Anagrams

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

## Latin
### Etymology

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.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈor.ka/, [ˈɔrkä]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈor.ka/, [ˈɔrkä]

### Noun

orca f (genitive orcae); first declension
* orc, orca (kind of whale)
* butt, tun (large-bellied vessel)

#### Declension

First-declension noun.

#### Derived terms

* urceus

#### Descendants

* 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

### References

* ↑ Ernout, Alfred, Meillet, Antoine (1985) “orca, -ae”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 467

### Further reading

* “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

## Portuguese
### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈɔʁ.kɐ/ [ˈɔh.kɐ]
* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈɔʁ.kɐ/ [ˈɔh.kɐ]
** (São Paulo) IPA: /ˈɔɾ.kɐ/
** (Rio de Janeiro) IPA: /ˈɔʁ.kɐ/ [ˈɔχ.kɐ]
** (Southern Brazil) IPA: /ˈɔɻ.ka/
* (Portugal) IPA: /ˈɔɾ.kɐ/
* Rhymes: (Brazil) -ɔʁkɐ, (Portugal) -ɔɾkɐ
* Hyphenation: or‧ca

### Noun

orca f (plural orcas)
* orca (Orcinus orca)
    Synonym: baleia-assassina

### Further reading

* “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

## Spanish
### Etymology

From Latin orca.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈoɾka/ [ˈoɾ.ka]
* Audio (Spain):(file)
* Rhymes: -oɾka
* Syllabification: or‧ca
* Homophone: horca

### Noun

orca f (plural orcas, masculine orco, masculine plural orcos)
* orca, killer whale
    Synonym: ballena asesina

### Further reading

* “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

### Anagrams

* arco, caro, cora, raco, roca