faun

[fawn]

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.

Nearby words

Origin of faun

1325–75; Middle English (< Old French faune) < Latin faunus; cf. Faunus

Related formsfaun·like, adjective

Can be confusedfaun fawn

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for fauns

Nor have the dryads and the fauns been frighted away for good.
Vanishing Roads and Other Essays|Richard Le Gallienne
I have another in the house; but it is not decorated with fauns and satyrs and foliage, like this.
Imaginary Conversations and Poems|Walter Savage Landor
Fairies and goblins, fauns and spirits, these are but names and personifications of a real life.
The Soul of a People|H. Fielding
But in the spring Ameto finds her again near a temple in which are gathered a company of fauns, dryads, satyrs, and naiads.
Giovanni Boccaccio, a Biographical Study|Edward Hutton

Roman gods of a class between the “immortal” and the “mortal,” such as the Satyrs and Fauns.
1000 Mythological Characters Briefly Described|Edward S. Ellis

British Dictionary definitions for fauns

faun

noun

(in Roman legend) a rural deity represented as a man with a goat's ears, horns, tail, and hind legs

Derived Formsfaunlike, 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 Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for fauns

faun

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.

Culture definitions for fauns

fauns

The Roman name for satyrs, mythical creatures who were part man and part goat.