The ents: Etymology

The word Ent was taken from Anglo-Saxon, where it means "giant". Tolkien may have extracted the word from the Anglo-Saxon poetry fragments orþanc enta geweorc = "work of cunning giants" and eald enta geweorc = "old work of giants", which described Ancient Roman ruins; see Orthanc. In this sense of the word, Ents are probably the most ubiquitous of all creatures in fantasy and folklore, perhaps second only to dragons. The word ent, as it is historically used, can refer to any number of large, roughly humanoid creatures, including, but not limited to, giants, trolls, orcs, and even Grendel from the epic poem Beowulf.