Etymology Question: Centaur and Minotaur

[Joseph L. Lockett]

An idle question from a discussion with a friend the other day:
is there any connection between the names of the legendary 'centaurs'
and the 'minotaur'? I always thought 'minotaur' meant 'bull of Minos',
or some such, but such a construction certainly wouldn't work for the
centaurs. Is 'taurus' of broader meaning? Was there an early king
named 'Cenos'? :-) Any help is appreciated, but anyone positing
'taurus' as a word from the 'Alkebulan' will be soundly hissed at! :)

Joseph L. Lockett
jlo...@ricevm1.rice.edu
Hamman Hall Administrator
Rice University, Houston Texas

[Yannis Schoinas]

JLO...@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU (Joseph L. Lockett) writes:

> An idle question from a discussion with a friend the other day:
>is there any connection between the names of the legendary 'centaurs'
>and the 'minotaur'? I always thought 'minotaur' meant 'bull of Minos',
>or some such, but such a construction certainly wouldn't work for the
>centaurs. Is 'taurus' of broader meaning? Was there an early king
>named 'Cenos'? :-) Any help is appreciated, but anyone positing
>'taurus' as a word from the 'Alkebulan' will be soundly hissed at! :)

taurus == bull, in Greek. So, minotaurus is exactly `bull of Minos'.
As for Centaurus, I have no idea how it might have been constructed.

Yannis.