Taurus

How to spell taurus

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce taurus

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does taurus mean?

1. nounThe second sign of the zodiac, traditionally covering people born from late April to late May.
2. nounA prominent constellation in the northern sky, traditionally drawn as a bull.

Taurus in a sentence

• Anyone born in early May falls under taurus according to the zodiac.

• The bright star Aldebaran marks the eye of the bull in taurus.

• The magazine prints a fresh horoscope for taurus every week.

• On a clear winter night the V-shaped face of taurus is easy to spot.

Where does taurus come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Taurus is simply the Latin word for 'bull', and that is exactly what the constellation depicts: the head and horns of a charging bull. The Latin taurus is closely related to the Greek tauros, also meaning bull, and both descend from a much older root for the animal that echoes across many ancient languages of the Mediterranean and Near East. Babylonian and Greek astronomers had long pictured this group of stars as a bull, and when Roman writers adopted the figure they used their own everyday word for the beast, fixing the name we still use today. The same root for 'bull' survives in words like 'taurine', describing anything bull-like, and even in the word for bullfighting in Spanish. The spelling preserves the Latin 'au', which is the part most likely to trip a writer who expects a simpler 'tor' or 'taw' sound.

How the word is built

• taur- (from Latin taurus: bull)
• -us (Latin noun ending)