Myth & LegendGreek → English
Centaur
/ˈsɛntɔːr/noun
A creature with the upper body of a man joined to the body of a horse.
The Greek roots
Κένταυρος
Kéntauros
centaur
Literally: “centaur (origin obscure)”
Follow a root:Κένταυρος2 words
The story of the word
Κένταυρος has no accepted etymology. The old guess splitting it into κεντεῖν, to prick, and ταῦρος, bull, giving bull-goader, is a Greek attempt to explain a word they had already inherited, and most scholars treat the name as pre-Greek. Centaurs in myth are drunk and violent at weddings, with one exception: Chiron, who taught Achilles and Asclepius medicine. The plant centaury is named after him, on the story that he used it to heal a wound.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
centauryCentaurus
In a sentence
The vase shows a centaur being thrown out of a wedding feast.