zodiac constellation, Middle EnglishTaur,taurus, Anglo-FrenchTaure, from Latintaurus "bull, bullock, steer," also the name of the constellation, from PIE*tau-ro- "bull."

This is reconstructed to be also the source of Greektauros, Old Church Slavonicturu "bull, steer;" Lithuaniantauras "aurochs;" Old Prussiantauris "bison"); from PIE*tauro- "bull," from root*(s)taeu- "stout, standing, strong" (source also of Sanskritsthura- "thick, compact," Avestanstaora- "big cattle," Middle Persianstor "horse, draft animal," Gothicstiur "young bull," Old Englishsteor; according to Watkins it is an extended form of the root*sta- "to stand, make or be firm."

Klein proposes a Semitic origin (compare Aramaictora "ox, bull, steer," Hebrewshor, Arabicthor, Ethiopiansor). 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. TheTaurid 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]