ταῦρος

See also: ταύρος, Ταύρος, and Ταῦρος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From Proto-Hellenic *táuros, from Proto-Indo-European *táwros; cognates include Latin taurus, Lithuanian taũras, Old English stēor (English steer), and Albanian ter. The Semitic words bear a resemblance: Aramaic תּוֹר (tor), Arabic ثَوْر (ṯawr), cf Proto-Semitic *ṯawr-; an etymological link is considered possible, either the PIE root was borrowed from the Semitic one, or the opposite, or both were borrowed from a third common source.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /tâu̯.ros/ → /ˈta.βros/ → /ˈta.vros/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /tâu̯.ros/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈtaw.ros/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈta.βros/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈta.vros/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈta.vros/

Noun

ταῦρος • (taûros) m (genitive ταύρου); second declension

1. bull
2. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) ox, chiefly as a sacrificial animal
   • c. 80–90 CE, Gospel of Matthew, 22:4; Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th edition, 2012:

     οἱ ταῦροί μου καὶ τὰ σιτιστὰ τεθυμένα καὶ πάντα ἕτοιμα

     hoi taûroí mou kaì tà sitistà tethuména kaì pánta hétoima

     my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready (NRSV)

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ ταῦρος; τοῦ ταύρου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ ταῦρος ho taûros	τὼ ταύρω tṑ taúrō	οἱ ταῦροι hoi taûroi
Genitive	τοῦ ταύρου toû taúrou	τοῖν ταύροιν toîn taúroin	τῶν ταύρων tôn taúrōn
Dative	τῷ ταύρῳ tôi taúrōi	τοῖν ταύροιν toîn taúroin	τοῖς ταύροις toîs taúrois
Accusative	τὸν ταῦρον tòn taûron	τὼ ταύρω tṑ taúrō	τοὺς ταύρους toùs taúrous
Vocative	ταῦρε taûre	ταύρω taúrō	ταῦροι taûroi
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• ταυρομᾰχῐ́ᾱ (tauromakhíā)
• ταυροφᾰ́γος (taurophágos)

 

Descendants

• Greek: ταύρος (távros)
• → Dutch: tauros

Further reading

• “ταῦρος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ταῦρος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ταῦρος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• ταῦρος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• ταῦρος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “ταῦρος”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G5022 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1456
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • bull idem, page 103.
  • taurus (mt.) idem, page 857.