Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

tauroctony

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables: tau-roctony
IPA

15

Scrabble Score

10

Letters

2

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A depiction (typically in relief or sculpture) of Mithras killing a bull; associated with the practice of Mithraism (as a cult) in the Roman Empire.

Example Sentences

"In any event, if, as I am arguing, the tauroctony represents the astronomical situation which obtained during the epoch in which the spring equinox was in Taurus, the fact that the summer solstice was in Leo during that epoch provides a convincing explanation for the occasional presence of the figure of a lion in the tauroctony."
"The central icon, ever present in Mithras temples throughout the Roman Empire, is the tauroctony, or bull-slaying."
"Tauroctonies featuring Mithras' regular clothes but with a crown instead of a cap would belong to a further cluster. A tauroctony would then also be assigned to other clusters for its patterns of features relating to the torchbearers, to the animals, and so on."

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ταυροκτόνος (tauroktónos), from ταῦρος (taûros, “bull”) + κτόνος (któnos, “killing”).

Inflected Forms

tauroctonies (plural)

Questions

What does tauroctony mean?: A depiction (typically in relief or sculpture) of Mithras killing a bull; associated with the practice of Mithraism (as a cult) in the Roman Empire.
Where does tauroctony come from?: Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ταυροκτόνος (tauroktónos), from ταῦρος (taûros, “bull”) + κτόνος (któnos, “killing”).

How to pronounce tauroctony

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