A taur (metanalyzed from centaur), also called a centauroid, is a modern creature of science fiction and fantasy literature. It is a six-limbed creature patterned after a centaur, using four legs for locomotion and two arms for manipulation, and being a composite of two different creatures; often it has the lower body of an animal and the upper body of a human. In many, the "human" part also shares some features of the base animal: the wemic may have leonine facial features, the bariaur has a goat's horns, and the chakat is all covered by fur and has a very feline head.
Though the Greek word kentauros is said to be composed of a single morpheme—perhaps not a Greek one in its origin—the element -taur has been separated (perhaps with influence from "minotaur", another hybrid creature albeit dissimilar in form) in the late 20th century to create a generalized form, "taur".
In furry fiction and art, -taur is highly productive as a suffix. There are creatures depicted such as wolftaurs, foxtaurs and chakats. While the upper half of a centaur is generally human, in furry the upper half of a taur is an anthropomorphized version of the animal lower half. For example, a tigertaur will have the arms and upper body of an anthropomorphic tiger, and the legs and lower body of an ordinary tiger.
Taurs often appear in sexual contexts, where they may be depicted with either one or two sets of genitalia: the first between their hind legs, which is either horse-like (i.e., centaur-like) or like the lower half's animal; if a second set exists, it is usually between the front legs and more human-like or like the upper half's animal. Sometimes they are not of the same gender; chakats, for example are all hermaphrodite, though their anatomy differs.
Occasionally taurs composed entirely of human elements are depicted. A humantaur may be thought of as essentially a human with four legs. The lower half of a humantaur may or may not have its own torso, unlike other kinds of taurs which always do.
Hextaurs are less frequently depicted, being a kind of taur with six legs instead of four.
Kinds of taurs
