- satyr
- woodland deity, companion of Bacchus, late 14c., from L. satyrus, from Gk. satyros, of unknown origin. In pre-Roman Gk. art, a man-like being with the tail and ears of a horse; the modern conception of a being part man, part goat, is from Roman sculptors, who seem to have assimilated them to the fauns of native mythology. In some Eng. bibles used curiously to translate Heb. se'irim, a type of hairy monster superstitiously believed to inhabit deserts.
- satire
- late 14c., "work intended to ridicule vice or folly," from L. satira "satire, poetic medley," earlier satura, in lanx satura "mixed dish, dish filled with various kinds of fruit," lit. "full dish," from fem. of satur "sated" (see saturate). First applied in literary sense to a collection of poems on a variety of subjects by Ennius. In classical L., a poem which assailed the prevailing vices, one after another. Altered in L. by infl. of Gk. satyr, on mistaken notion that the form is related to the Gk. satyr drama (see satyr).
"Satire (n.) - An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness. In this country satire never had more than a sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein we are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it, like all humor, being tolerant and sympathetic. Moreover, although Americans are 'endowed by their Creator' with abundant vice and folly, it is not generally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore the satirist is popularly regarded as a sour-spirited knave, and his every victim's outcry for codefendants evokes a national assent." [Ambrose Bierce, "Devil's Dictionary," 1911]
For nuances of usage, see humor. - Scratch
- in Old Scratch "the Devil," 1740, is from earlier Scrat, from O.N. skratte "goblin, monster," a word which was used in late O.E. for "hermaphrodite" (cf. O.H.G. scrato "satyr, wood demon").
- faun
- late 14c., from L. Faunus, a god of the countryside, worshipped especially by farmers and shepherds, equivalent of Gk. Pan. Formerly men with goat horns and tails, later with goat legs, which caused them to be assimilated to satyrs, but they have lately diverged again.
"The faun is now regarded rather as the type of unsophisticated & the satyr of unpurified man; the first is man still in intimate communion with Nature, the second is man still swayed by bestial passions." [Fowler]
The plural is fauni. - tragic
- 1540s, "calamitous, disastrous, fatal," shortened from tragical (late 15c.), modeled on L. tragicus, from Gk. tragikos "of or pertaining to tragedy," lit. "of or pertaining to a goat," and probably referring to a satyr impersonated by a goat singer or satyric actor (see tragedy). Tragic flaw (1913) translates Gk. hamartia.