A sort of generic word (a suffix really) to describe a fantasy character who, instead of having the normal four legs of a non-anthropomorphic animal or the two legs and two arms of a biped, has... both.

-Taur is a rather productive suffix; you can attach it to pretty much any creature (foxtaur, cattaur) but sometimes it incorporates: ottaur is an otter-taur.

The word comes from the centaur, which had the lower body (four legs) of a horse and the upper body (two arms) of a man. Most taurs only consist of one species though: a horsetaur would have the lower body of a horse but the upper body of an anthropomorphic horse.

As a rather odd twist it often happens that the, ah, physical gender of the lower half doesn't match the physical gender of the upper half. Generically you would call such a creature a hermtaur.

Another variation is the hextaur, which is like a regular 'taur except with six legs instead of four, for a total of eight limbs.

(BTW, the Minotaur is not a 'taur. The -taur in Minotaur comes from a Greek word meaning "bull", as opposed to the -taur in centaur which doesn't mean anything on its own, IIRC.)

Taur (?), n. [L. Taurus.]

The constellation Taurus.

[Obs.]

Chaucer.

 

© Webster 1913.

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