That means we could also use bicorn, tricorn, etc.

  • SnokenKeekaGuard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    ·
    11 months ago

    unicorn (n.) early 13c., from Old French unicorne, from Late Latin unicornus (Vulgate), from noun use of Latin unicornis (adj.) “having one horn,” from uni- “one” (from PIE root *oi-no- “one, unique”) + cornus “horn” (from PIE root *ker- (1) “horn; head”).

    The Late Latin word translates Greek monoceros, itself rendering Hebrew re’em (Deuteronomy xxxiii.17 and elsewhere), which probably was a kind of wild ox. According to Pliny, a creature with a horse’s body, deer’s head, elephant’s feet, lion’s tail, and one black horn two cubits long projecting from its forehead. Compare German Einhorn, Welsh ungorn, Breton uncorn, Old Church Slavonic ino-rogu. Old English used anhorn as a loan-translation of Latin unicornis.

    also from early 13c.

    • LillyPip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      11 months ago

      According to Pliny, a creature with a horse’s body, deer’s head, elephant’s feet, lion’s tail, and one black horn two cubits long projecting from its forehead

      That’s a pretty good description of Elasmotherium.

      Pliny should have missed the last Elasmotherium by like 100,000 years, though, give or take a few years.