taurs

Latvian
Taurs

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *tew-, *tu- (“to swell”), with a suffix *-ro. The meaning evolution was probably: “swollen” → “fat; having a well-developed body” → “strong (animal)” → “aurochs.” Some researches believe this word to be a borrowing from Semitic into Indo-European, but many others disagree with that opinion. Cognates include Lithuanian taũras, Old Prussian tauris, Old Church Slavonic тоуръ (turŭ), Russian тур (tur, “aurochs”), Ancient Greek ταῦρος (taûros), Latin taurus (“bull”).[1]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): [tàurs], IPA(key): [tāūrs]

Noun

taurs m (1st declension)

  1. aurochs (Bos primigenitus, the extinct ancestor of domestic cattle)
    vietvārdi pierāda, ka mūsu mežos kādreiz mituši tauri ― placenames show that there once lived aurochs in our forests

Declension
Declension of taurs (1st declension)
singular (vienskaitlis) plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs) taurs tauri
accusative (akuzatīvs) tauru taurus
genitive (ģenitīvs) taura tauru
dative (datīvs) tauram tauriem
instrumental (instrumentālis) tauru tauriem
locative (lokatīvs) taurā tauros
vocative (vokatīvs) taurs tauri

References
  1. Karulis, Konstantīns (1992), “taurs”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN
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