EXAMPLES | WORD ORIGIN
noun Classical Mythology one of a class of rural deities represented as men with the ears, horns, tail, and later also the hind legs of a goat.
Origin of faun 1325–75; Middle English (<
Old French faune ) <
Latin faunus; cf.
Faunus Related forms faun·like , adjective Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for faun Contemporary Examples of faun We hope our film Afternoon of a Faun : Tanaquil Le Clercq illuminates the exceptional qualities of Tanny in dance and in life.
Jerome Robbins, also at NYCB, did the same, and she inspired him to create his radical Afternoon of the Faun for her.
The palette was gentle and pretty, focusing on rose pinks, lavenders, dusky mauve, mint, faun and pale lemon.
Historical Examples of faun I have been finishing the arm of the Faun in that pavilion outside the town.
At last his eyes rested on the Faun , and he remembered at once where he was.
The man addressed was handsome as a faun might be and as a tiger is.
His descriptive letters to Badollet read like the “Idylls of a Faun .”
The Faun waved his pipes saucily at the Phoenix and gave a wry smile.
British Dictionary definitions for faun noun (in Roman legend) a rural deity represented as a man with a goat's ears, horns, tail, and hind legs
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Derived Forms faunlike , adjective Word Origin for faun C14: back formation from Faunes (plural), from Latin Faunus
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for faun n. late 14c., from Latin Faunus , a word of unknown origin. A god of the countryside, worshipped especially by farmers and shepherds, equivalent of Greek Pan . Formerly men with goat horns and tails, later with goat legs, which caused them to be assimilated to satyrs, but they have diverged again lately.
The faun is now regarded rather as the type of unsophisticated & the satyr of unpurified man; the first is man still in intimate communion with Nature, the second is man still swayed by bestial passions. [Fowler] The plural is fauni .
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
