Forms: (4–5 pl. centauros, -rus, 4 centaury), 4–5 sentawre, 5–7 centaure, 6 centure, 5– centaur. [ad. L. centaurus, a. Gr. κένταυρος in same sense; of unsettled origin: see Liddell & Scott.]
1. Mythol. A fabulous creature, with the head, trunk and arms of a man, joined to the body and legs of a horse. In early Greek literature the name appears as that of a savage race of Thessaly, supposed by some to have been the first expert riders the Greeks were acquainted with, and hence to have given rise to the subsequent fables.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Monk’s T., 109. Off Hercules … He of Centauros leyde the boost adoun.
1475. Caxton, Jason, 8. These Centaurs were an C men that alway helde hem in armes for to kepe the countreye of thessaylle.
1475. Bk. Noblesse (1860), 21. He made tame the proude beestis clepid Centaurus, that be halfe man and halfe best.
1578. T. N., trans. Conq. W. India, 44. Thinkyng that he hadde bin a Centaure, and that the Horse and man was all one incorporate.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 189. The Thessalians called Centaures, inhabiting neere to the mountain Pelius, were the first that fought on horseback.
1616. Bullokar, Centaures, People of Thessalie.
1680. H. More, Apocal. Apoc., 88. Such Monsters which are usually called Centaures.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., II. 177. Many … have held the mammouth to be as fabulous as the centaur.
1885. Mag. of Art, Sept., 443/1. The shaggy centaur, all beast in mood and well-nigh all beast in form.
2. fig. a. An unnatural hybrid creation. b. An intimate union of two diverse natures.
1606. Dekker, Sev. Sins, VII. (Arb.), 49. Sixe of these Centuares (that are halfe man, halfe beast, and halfe diuell).
1641. Milton, Animadv. (1851), 243. Make our selves rather the Bastards, or the Centaurs of their spirituall fornications.
1820. Byron, Juan, V. clviii. Why don’t they knead two virtuous souls for life, Into that moral centaur, man and wife?
1883. W. J. Stillman, in Century Mag., Oct., 826. Master and servant … a kind of social Centaur, a single brain and a double body.
3. One of the southern constellations.
[1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 270. There standeth the centaure Chiron … he hath in him 37 starres.]
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 328. Satan in likeness of an Angel bright Betwixt the Centaure and the Scorpion stearing.
1836. Penny Cycl., VI. 414/2. From Ptolemy’s catalogue, it is evident that he considered the Centaur as holding the wolf … in one hand, and a thyrsus in the other.
† 4. A kind of ship. Obs.
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 173. To describe the diuersitie of ships, as Carracks, Galleons, Galeasses, Galleys, Centaureis, ships of Warre, Flyboats, Busses, and all other kind of ships and vessells.
5. attrib. and Comb., as centaur-power; centaur-like adj.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 115. As if Centaur-like he had beene one peece with the horse.
1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, I. x. The horse was as good as the rider deserved … they were—centaur-like—both of a piece.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., I. vii. 123. The thrill of social vanities and centaur-power which belong to human kind.
Hence (chiefly nonce-words) Centaurdom, the estate of centaurs (cf. quot. 1883 in 2 b). Centauresque a., in the style of a centaur. Centauress, a female centaur. Centaurial a., pertaining to centaurs. Centaurian a., Centauric a., of the nature of a centaur. Centaurize v., to behave brutally like a centaur.
1883. W. J. Stillman, in Century Mag., Oct., 826. Refusing to recognize Centaurdom as the highest human good.
1842. Mrs. Browning, Grk. Chr. Poets, 160. Something centauresque and of twofold nature.
1754. Young, Centaur, Ded. All but Centauresses are prudes with you.
1841–4. Anthon, Classic. Dict., s.v. Centauri, [Buttmann] supposes Hippodamia to have been a Centauress, married to the prince of the Lapithæ.
1883. W. J. Stillman, in Century Mag., Oct., 826. The bluest blood being that of him whose remote forefathers did but follow the original centaurial proposition of taking all they wanted wherever they found it. Ibid., 827. This very class which I have in no disparaging sense termed Centauric, the aristocracy, where social independence has reached its highest.
1846. Mozley, Ess. (1878), I. 246. Common sense rejects his … centaurian image of an evangelising sceptic.
1816. G. S. Faber, Orig. Pag. Idol., II. 491. The centauric form of Chivan.
1755. Young, Centaur, ii. Time was, when to centaurize was less ridiculous.
