Also 4, 6 taue, 4 tav, 4–8 taw, 5 tayu, tayewe. [a. Gr. ταῦ, name of the letter Τ in the Greek alphabet, as in the Semitic whence the Greek was derived: see T, the letter.]

1

  1.  The name of the letter T in the Greek, Hebrew, and ancient Semitic alphabets. Often in the sense ‘last letter,’ as tau was orig. in Greek, and continued to be in Hebrew, etc.

2

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 12199–12204. Þe letters fra alpha to taw [Gött. tau, F. taw, Tr. tayu], Wit sundri sight man mai þam knau [Tr. sew]. Quat es taw, sai first to me, And i sal vndo alpha to þe; For he þat alpha can noght se, Hu sal he wijt quat tav mai be?

3

1838.  Jackson, trans. Krummacher’s Elisha, ix. 199. Set a mark upon them … a Tau, the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, upon their foreheads.

4

1883.  I. Taylor, Alphabet, I. 239. The letters he, lamed, and tau are almost the same in the Siloam inscription as on the Moabite stone, which is older by a century and a half. Ibid., II. 106. The persistency in the shape of tau, which varies less than any other letter, our modern capital T hardly differing from the [Phœnician] Baal Lebanon form.

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  2.  A mark of the shape of the letter T, a St. Anthony’s cross; a figure of this as a sacred symbol (also in Heraldry). Also formerly applied to the sign of the cross as made with the hand.

6

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 6078 (Cott.). On aiþer post þer hus to smer, A takin o tav on þair derner [Gött. On ilk derner, A sine of tau Τ (Trin. thayu) make ȝe þer]. Ibid., 21711–6. Þe signe o tav in ald laies Bitakens cros nu in vr daies…. Tau and cros bath er als an, Bot tav has yerd a-bouen nan.

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c. 1446.  Lydg., Nightingale Poems, ii. 318. This banner is most myghti of vertu,… Most noble signe and token of Tau.

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1700.  Astry, trans. Saavedra-Faxardo, II. 316. It is by the Tau they are stampt with, that they are assured of their real Value.

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1704.  J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Taw, the Heralds have an Ordinary which they reckon among the Crosses, called by this Name, and of this Figure.

10

1895.  Q. Rev., July, 213. Tradition may conceive that the Tau was the mark of Cain. Ibid. (1908), July, 142. Little images of bad silver, with the Saint’s bell, his ‘Tau’ and the notorious pig.

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  b.  Applied to the crux ansata of ancient Egyptian symbolism, the ankhu ☥.

12

1857.  Wilkinson, Egypt. Time Pharaohs, 133. The gods hold in one hand the sacred Tau, or sign of life.

13

1877.  A. B. Edwards, Up Nile, ix. 238.

14

1886.  C. R. Conder, Syrian Stone Lore, 253. note. The emblems of the phœnix, the tau, the labarum, and the fylfot occur, but not the cross.

15

  3.  A T-shaped pastoral staff.

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1855.  trans. Labarte’s Arts Mid. Ages, xiii. 381. Pastoral staff called … a Tau.

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1875.  Maskell, Ivories, 84. The Tau … is but a form of the pastoral staff, adopted in more than one country of Western Europe early in the middle ages.

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  4.  A name, or part of the name, of various animals having markings resembling the letter T.

19

  a.  The toad-fish (Batrachus tau) of the Atlantic coast of N. America. b. A kind of moth: see quot. 1832; also, a kind of beetle, and of fly.

20

1832.  J. Rennie, Conspect. Butterfl. & Moths, 36. Bombycidæ (Stephens)…. The Tau Emperor [Moth] (Aglaia Tau, Ochsenheimer). Said to be British on doubtful authority.

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  5.  attrib. and Comb., as tau-shaped adj. (= T-shaped); tau-bone, a T-shaped bone, as the INTERCLAVICLE; tau-cross, a T-shaped cross (= sense 2); so tau-crucifix; tau-ring, ? a ring inscribed with the letter T; tau-staff, a T-shaped staff (= sense 3).

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1474.  Will Ld. Mountioye (Somerset Ho.). A *Tayewe crosse.

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1562.  Leigh, Armorie, 60 b. Ouer all a crosse Taue.

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1885.  Blackw. Mag., July, 129/2. The tau cross, crux ansata, St. Anthony’s cross,… is the commonest of all primitive symbols.

25

1888.  F. G. Lee, in Archæologia, LI. 356. There are … no less than five heads of tau-crosses preserved in the South Kensington Museum.

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1877.  W. Jones, Finger-ring, 155. A very interesting collection of so-called *Tau (T) rings were exhibited.

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1888.  F. G. Lee, in Archæologia LI. 356. A figure of a bishop or abbot … bearing a *tau-shaped staff.

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1905.  Athenæum, 10 June, 727/2. A tau-shaped central chamber.

29

1885.  M’Crie, Sk. & Stud., 37. The other carries a cross-headed or *tau-staff.

30

1888.  F. G. Lee, in Archæologia LI. 356. Head of a tau-staff of the eleventh century.

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