UNICORN

There is only this animal mentioned in the Bible, the name of which begins with U, and of this I cannot give you a picture, because no person now knows what sort of an animal it was. Some suppose it was a kind of wild goat; others think that it was a sort of deer; and others, that it was what we call the rhinoceros. Perhaps you have seen pictures with the name of the unicorn under them; but you must remember that those who made them only guessed it was so, and that no person can certainly tell what it was.

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- Generally had a single horn Ps 92:10 - Sometimes found with two horns De 33:17 - DESCRIBED AS . Intractable in disposition Job 39:9,10,12 . Of vast strength Job 39:11 - The young of, remarkable for agility Ps 29:6 - ILLUSTRATIVE . Of God as the strength of Israel Nu 23:22; 24:8 . Of the wicked Isa 34:7 . (Horns of,) of the strength of the descendants of Joseph De 33:17 . (Horns of,) of the strength of powerful enemies Ps 22:21 . (The position of its horns,) of the exaltation of saints Ps 92:10

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One-horned, corresponding to the word Monoceros, by which the original Hebrew REEM is translated by the Seventy. The Hebrew word means erect, and has no reference to the number of horns. Most interpreters now understand it of the wild buffalo of the Eastern continents, the Bos Bubalus of Linaeus, resembling the American buffalo, but having larger horns and no dewlap. This animal has the appearance of uncommon strength. The bulk of his body, and his prodigious muscular limbs, denote his force at the first view, Nu 23:22. His aspect is ferocious and malignant, and at the same time stupid. His head is of ponderous size; his eyes diminutive; and what serves to render his visage still more savage, are the tufts of frizzled hair which hang down from his cheeks and the lower part of his mouth, Job 39:9-12 Ps 22:21. Wild buffalo occur in many parts of Africa and India, where they live in great troops in the forests, and are regarded as excessively fierce and dangerous animals. The hunters never venture in any numbers to oppose these ferocious animals face to face; but conceal themselves in the thickets or in the branches of the trees, whence they attack the buffaloes as they pass along. In Egypt, as also in Southern Europe, the buffalo has been partially domesticated in comparatively modern times. Travelers also find it in parts of Syria, Persia, and India. It is less docile than the ox, retaining a remnant of ferocity and intractability, together with a wild and lowering aspect. It is commonly driven and guided by means of a ring in the nose. To the ancient Hebrews, however, it seems to have been known only in its wild state, savage, ferocious, and often immensely large.

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Unicorn. 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).

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unicorn. Unicorn, [u as yu] n. a beast with only one horn, fish, bird

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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. 1. A fabulous animal with one horn; the monoceros; — often represented in heraldry as a supporter.
2. 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. ☞ The unicorn mentioned in the Scripture was probably the urus. See the Note under Reem. 3. 3. (Zoöl.) (a) Any large beetle having a hornlike prominence on the head or prothorax. (b) The larva of a unicorn moth.
4. 4. (Zoöl.) The kamichi; — called also unicorn bird.
5. 5. (Mil.) A howitzer.
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 (Cœlodasys 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.