From *ògún (“spirit or energy one has after hunting or battling”), ultimately from Proto-Yoruboid *ò-gwṹ, equivalent ò- + gún. * The concept of Ogun as the embodiment of iron and hunting likely dates to the Iron Age and is thus present in most religious/spiritual practices of Volta-Niger and Benue-Congo speaking peoples. Two groups of cognates exist. The first ones are those in which this spirit is personified as a deity and becoming a proper noun, see Edo Ogun and Fon Gu. However, other cognates maintain the noun form of this word as simply the energy or spirit associated with killing, see Igala ògwú (“killer instinct”), Idoma ògwú (“honor given to a successful hunter or warrior; display of behavior when someone has killed a large animal”), or possibly Igbo òdogwu (“mighty hunter”). The root term *gwṹ could be cognate with Volta-Niger language terms for "kill," see Igbo ògbú (“killer”) or perhaps nwụ (“to kill”), Proto-Edoid *ghu, Nupe wu, Ibibio woot, Akan wu, Kamo yu. This is likely especially since Igala égwú means "corpse," and the term also greatly resembles the verb to die in Yorùbá, kú. Likely a Doublet of Egúngún, referring to deified ancestors and veneration of the dead, see Proto-Yoruboid *É-gwṹ.