faun

/fɔn/

/fɔn/

Other forms: fauns

A faun is a mythological creature that's half human and half goat. Go to many art museums and you'll see paintings of fauns cavorting through the forest or playing a flute.

The faun first appeared in Roman mythology, and it's turned up in many art forms since then. There are paintings and sculptures of fauns from the 1800s, and a ten-minute symphonic piece by Claude Debussy, called "The Afternoon of a Faun" in English. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a book called "The Marble Faun," and the Chronicles of Narnia's character Mr. Tumnus is a faun. The word comes from the Latin Faunus, a god of the countryside.

Definitions of faun

1. noun

   ancient Italian deity in human shape, with horns, pointed ears and a goat's tail; equivalent to Greek satyr
   type of:

   Roman deity

   a deity worshipped by the ancient Romans