faun

[ fawn ]

noun

, Classical Mythology.

1. one of a class of rural deities represented as men with the ears, horns, tail, and later also the hind legs of a goat.

faun

/ fɔːn /

noun

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

Derived Forms

• ˈfaunˌlike, adjective

Other Words From

• faunlike adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of faun¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of faun¹

C14: back formation from Faunes (plural), from Latin Faunus

Example Sentences

Here, though, all the dancers are the faun and their attention locks not on a nymph but on us.

From New York Times

“The certificate is a fake, ditto the signature, ditto the spelling, ditto the drawing,” she told The New York Times in reference to one of the works, a drawing of a faun.

From New York Times

But little actually felt contemporary in this lollipops program of swans and fauns that, musically at least, might have been one of those old-timey Hollywood Bowl “Rhapsody Under the Stars.”

From Los Angeles Times

“Only your gran could see us for what we truly are,” said one of the fauns.

From Literature

One was a faun—no, Jason thought—a satyr.

From Literature