[yoo-ni-kawrn] 
| 1. | a mythical creature resembling a horse, with a single horn in the center of its forehead: often symbolic of chastity or purity. |
| 2. | a heraldic representation of this animal, in the form of a horse with a lion's tail and with a long, straight, and spirally twisted horn. |
| 3. | (initial capital letter ) Astronomy. the constellation Monoceros. |
| 4. | an animal mentioned in the Bible, Deut. 33:17: now believed by some to be a description of a wild ox or rhinoceros. |
| 5. | a former gold coin of Scotland, first issued by James III in 1486, having an obverse bearing the figure of a unicorn. |
| u·ni·corn (yōō'nĭ-kôrn') n.
[Middle English unicorne, from Old French, from Late Latin ūnicornis, from Latin, having one horn : ūnus, one; see oi-no- in Indo-European roots + cornū, horn; see ker-1 in Indo-European roots.] |
A mythical animal resembling a small horse but with a long, straight horn growing out of its forehead. Often it was described as having the legs of a deer and the tail of a lion. Some sources claim it was visible only to virgins.
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).