Category:Unicorn

U"ni*corn, n. Etym: [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. (zoöl.) (a) any large beetle having a hornlike prominence on the head or Prothorax. (b) the larva of a unicorn moth.

4. (zoöl.)

Defn: the kamichi; -- called also unicorn bird.

5. (mil.)

Defn: 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 (zoöl.), the narwhal. -- unicorn moth (zoöl.), a notodontian moth (coelodasys 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 (chamælirium luteum). Both are used in medicine. -- unicorn shell (zoöl.), 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.

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---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Unicorn - Described as an animal of great ferocity and strength (Numbers 23:22, R.V., "wild ox," marg., "ox-antelope;" Numbers 24:8; Isaiah 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 (compare Deuteronomy 33:17; Psalms 22:21; Psalms 29:6; Psalms 92:10).