Find the word definition

Crossword clues for aurochs

The Collaborative International Dictionary
Aurochs

Aurochs \Au"rochs\ ([add]"r[o^]ks), n. [G. auerochs, OHG. [=u]rohso; [=u]r (cf. AS. [=u]r) + ohso ox, G. ochs. Cf. Owre, Ox.] (Zo["o]l.) The European bison ( Bison bonasus, or Bison Europ[ae]us), once widely distributed, but now nearly extinct, except where protected in the Lithuanian forests, and perhaps in the Caucasus. It is distinct from the Urus of C[ae]sar, with which it has often been confused.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
aurochs

1766, misapplication to the European bison (Bos bison) of a word that actually refers to a species of wild ox (Bos ursus) that went extinct 17c., from German Aurochs, from Old High German urohso, from uro "aurochs" (cognate with Old English ur, Old Norse ürr), which is of unknown origin, + ohso "ox" (see ox). Latin urus and Greek ouros are Germanic loan-words.\n

Wiktionary
aurochs

n. 1 An extinct European mammal, ''Bos primigenius'', the ancestor of domestic cattle. 2 (context zoology English) The European bison (''Bison bonasus'', or ''Europæus'').

WordNet
aurochs
  1. n. European bison having a smaller and higher head than the North American bison [syn: wisent, Bison bonasus]

  2. large recently extinct long-horned European wild ox; considered one of the ancestors of domestic cattle [syn: urus, Bos primigenius]

Wikipedia
Aurochs

The aurochs ( or ; pl. aurochs, or rarely aurochsen, aurochses), also urus, ure (Bos primigenius), is an extinct type of large wild cattle that inhabited Europe, Asia and North Africa. It is the ancestor of domestic cattle. The species survived in Europe until the last recorded aurochs died in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland in 1627.

During the Neolithic Revolution, which occurred during the early Holocene, there were at least two aurochs domestication events: one related to the Indian subspecies, leading to zebu cattle; the other one related to the Eurasian subspecies, leading to taurine cattle. Other species of wild bovines were also domesticated, namely the wild water buffalo, gaur, and banteng. In modern cattle, numerous breeds share characteristics of the aurochs, such as a dark colour in the bulls with a light eel stripe along the back (the cows being lighter), or a typical aurochs-like horn shape.

Usage examples of "aurochs".

Mai, they herded cattle on the grasslands and pigs in the patches of woodland that stood between the fields, and the young men of the tribe hunted boar and deer and aurochs and bear and wolf in the wild woods that had now been pressed back beyond the temples.

Then, for five summer nights, they had to survive in the forest where their enemies would not just be the hunters, but also the bears, the great wild aurochs, the wolves and the Outfolk bands who knew that the boys were loose among the trees and so came searching for slaves.

This was the wild place, the dark place where wolves, bears and aurochs stalked.

It was no sorcery, nor a monster, but a bull aurochs twice the size of the largest ox Saban had ever seen: a creature of huge muscle, black hide, sharp horns and beady eyes.

I would like you to meet my sister, Tulie of the Aurochs Hearth, headwoman of the Lion Camp.

At the last one, the hearth of the Aurochs, she saw Deegie standing near the fireplace brushing her rich chestnut hair back and wrapping it into a bun while she talked to someone on a bed platform.

You start with a frame of bone and wood shaped like a bowl that will hold two or maybe three people, and cover it with a hide, usually aurochs, hair side out and well oiled.

Tulie had almost always found a way to join hunting parties, even when she had small children, and the Aurochs Hearth was well represented.

Mut may have chosen some other spirit, not one of the two men of the Aurochs Hearth.

The rest of the Aurochs Hearth came through the long- house along the passageway.

Tulie and Barzec would be willing to adopt Jondalar to the Aurochs Hearth, and Nezzie and I want you to become a daughter of the Lion Hearth.

Ayla opened a small parfleche, a carrying case made of stiff rawhide, in which she had packed food for them, some dried meat that she thought was aurochs, and a small basket of dried blueberries and little tart plums.

Then, starting at the far end, at the Hearth of the Aurochs, they stirred the banked coals or small sustaining fires in each of the firepits and poured the dirt over them to smother the flames.

Brinan and Crisavec suddenly burst into the space in the middle of the Mammoth Hearth, running down the passageway from the Aurochs and Crane hearths, chasing each other.

Attached to the belt by a loop was an ivory-handled flint knife in a rawhide sheath, and suspended from another loop, the lower section of a hollow black aurochs horn, a drinking cup that was a talisman of the aurochs Hearth.