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Unicorn - Dictionary Definition and Overview |
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Unicorn : (noun)
1: an imaginary creature represented as a white horse with a
long horn growing from its forehead
Based on WordNet 2.0
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Unicorn : \U"ni*corn\, n. [OE. unicorne, F. unicorne, L. unicornis
one-horned, having a single horn; unus one _ cornu a horn;
cf. L. unicornuus a unicorn. See One, and Horn.]
1. A fabulous animal with one horn; the monoceros; -- often
represented in heraldry as a supporter.
2. A two-horned animal of some unknown kind, so called in the
Authorized Version of the Scriptures.
Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the
furrow? --Job xxxix.
10.
Note: The unicorn mentioned in the Scripture was probably the
urus. See the Note under Reem.
3. (Zo["o]l.)
(a) Any large beetle having a hornlike prominence on the
head or prothorax.
(b) The larva of a unicorn moth.
4. (Zo["o]l.) The kamichi; -- called also unicorn bird.
5. (Mil.) A howitzer. [Obs.]
Fossil unicorn, or Fossil unicorn's horn (Med.), a
substance formerly of great repute in medicine; -- named
from having been supposed to be the bone or the horn of
the unicorn.
Unicorn fish, Unicorn whale (Zo["o]l.), the narwhal.
Unicorn moth (Zo["o]l.), a notodontian moth ({C[oe]lodasys
unicornis) whose caterpillar has a prominent horn on its
back; -- called also unicorn prominent.
Unicorn root (Bot.), a name of two North American plants,
the yellow-flowered colicroot ({Aletris farinosa) and the
blazing star ({Cham[ae]lirium luteum). Both are used in
medicine.
Unicorn shell (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of
marine gastropods having a prominent spine on the lip of
the shell. Most of them belong to the genera Monoceros
and Leucozonia.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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Unicorn : described as an animal of great ferocity and strength (Num.
23:22, R.V., "wild ox," marg., "ox-antelope;" 24:8; Isa. 34:7,
R.V., "wild oxen"), and untamable (Job 39:9). It was in reality
a two-horned animal; but the exact reference of the word so
rendered (reem) is doubtful. Some have supposed it to be the
buffalo; others, the white antelope, called by the Arabs rim.
Most probably, however, the word denotes the Bos primigenius
("primitive ox"), which is now extinct all over the world. This
was the auerochs of the Germans, and the urus described by
Caesar (Gal. Bel., vi.28) as inhabiting the Hercynian forest.
The word thus rendered has been found in an Assyrian inscription
written over the wild ox or bison, which some also suppose to be
the animal intended (comp. Deut. 33:17; Ps. 22:21; 29:6; 92:10).
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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