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Origin and history of Minotaur

Minotaur(n.)

in Greek mythology a flesh-eating monster with a human body and the head of a bull, late 14c., from Greek minotauros, from Minos, king of Crete (compare Minoan), + tauros "bull" (see Taurus). The son of Pasiphae (wife of Minos) by a bull, he was confined in the labyrinth and killed by the Athenian hero Theseus.

also from late 14c.

Entries linking to Minotaur

Minoan(adj.)

"of or pertaining to ancient Crete," 1894, from Minos, famous king of Crete; applied by British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans to the Bronze Age civilization that flourished there c. 3000-1400 B.C.E.

Taurus(n.)

zodiac constellation, Middle English Taur, taurus, Anglo-French Taure, from Latin taurus "bull, bullock, steer," also the name of the constellation, from PIE *tau-ro- "bull."

This is reconstructed to be also the source of Greek tauros, Old Church Slavonic turu "bull, steer;" Lithuanian tauras "aurochs;" Old Prussian tauris "bison"); from PIE *tauro- "bull," from root *(s)taeu- "stout, standing, strong" (source also of Sanskrit sthura- "thick, compact," Avestan staora- "big cattle," Middle Persian stor "horse, draft animal," Gothic stiur "young bull," Old English steor; according to Watkins it is an extended form of the root *sta- "to stand, make or be firm."

Klein proposes a Semitic origin (compare Aramaic tora "ox, bull, steer," Hebrew shor, Arabic thor, Ethiopian sor). De Vaan writes: "The earlier history of the word is uncertain: there is no cognate in [Indo-Iranian] or Tocharian, whereas there are Semitic words for 'bull' which are conspicuously similar. Hence, it may have been an early loanword of the form *tauro- into the western IE languages."

The meaning "person born under the sign of the bull" is recorded from 1901. The Taurid meteors (peaking Nov. 20) are so called from 1878.

At midnight revels when the gossips met,
He was the theme of their eternal chat:
This ask'd what form great Jove would next devise,
And when his godship would again Taurise?
[William Somerville, "The Wife," 1727]
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