stag-horn
Also stag's horn.
[stag n.1]
1. a. In pl. The horns of a stag. b. In sing. The horn of a stag, as a material.
| 1663 Boyle Consid. Usef. Nat. Philos. ii. App. 356 In case Stags Horns cannot be procured for the preparation. 1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 499 Stag's horn and ivory are nearly the same as bone. 1843 Holtzapffel Turning I. 121 When short pieces of stag-horn are used entire, as for the handles of table-knives, the hollow cellular part is concealed. 1864 J. Hunt tr. Vogt's Lect. Man x. 263 When the articles became scarce they provided themselves with worked staghorns. |
| attrib. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Stag-horn cutter, a worker up of deer horn for knife handles, etc. |
c. transf. in
pl. The bare upper branches of a tree.
nonce-use.
Cf. stag-headed a. 2.
| 1879 Browning Ned Bratts 172 That tree art thou!..Thy stag-horns fright the sky, thy snake-roots sting the turf! |
2. In the names of plants.
a. The American or Virginian sumach,
Rhus typhina. More fully
stag('s horn tree,
stag-horn sumach.
| 1753 Chambers' Cycl. Suppl. App., Stag's horn-tree, a name sometimes given to the rhus, or sumach. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVI. 228/1 The young branches [of the Virginian sumach] are covered with a soft velvet-like down,..from whence the common people have given it the appellation of stag's horn. 1868 Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 201 Stag-horn sumach (Rhus typhina). 1882 Garden 19 Aug. 163/3 The Stag's-horn Sumach..has a very singular appearance just as the flower-spikes become prominent. |
b. A kind of moss,
esp. Lycopodium clavatum. More fully
stag's horn (also staghorn) moss.
| 1741 Dillenius Hist. Muscorum 310 Hypnum cupressi, forme vulgare, foliis obtusis. The blunt Cypress-like Hypnum... Hisque notus est nomine Stags-Horn Moss. 1800 Wordsw. Idle Shepherd-boys 19 Or with that plant which in our dale We call stag-horn, or fox's tail, Their rusty hats they trim. 1844 E. Newman Brit. Ferns etc. 353 The Common Club-moss, Wolf's-claw, or Stag's-horn, is the only species of Lycopodium that can be spoken of as abundant in Britain. 1855 M. Arnold Tristram & Iseult iii. 24 Their little hands Are busy gathering..streams Of stagshorn for their hats. 1882 Good Words 165 Staghorn Moss. |
c. A fern of the genus
Platycerium. (In full
staghorn fern.)
| 1882 J. Smith Dict. Pop. Names Plants 390 Staghorn Fern is represented by several species of Platycerium. 1893 Mrs. C. Praed Outlaw & Lawmaker II. 32 It was covered with a wonderful growth of ferns, birdsnests, and staghorns, with branching, antler-like fronds. |
d. (See
quot.)
| 1884 W. Miller Plant-n. 122 Stag's-horn Saxifrage, Saxifraga ceratophylla. |
3. a. In the names of insects, etc. (See
quots.)
| 1816 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. xxi. (1818) II. 225 The stag⁓horn capricorn beetle (Prionus cervicornis, F.) in America. 1884 Goode Nat. Hist. Aquatic Anim. 841 Among the true stony corals are the Stag-horn Corals (Madrepora cervicornis, prolifera, and palmata). 1896 Lydekker Roy. Nat. Hist. VI. 72 A curious representative from the Malay Archipelago, known as the staghorn-fly (Elaphomyia), takes its name from the development of the sides of the head into large branching horns. |
b. stag('s) horn coral, a branching coral of the genus
Acropora.
| [1785 in G. M. Millar New Syst. Nat. Hist. iv. ii. 286 The coral plants..sometimes shoot out like trees without leaves in winter;..sometimes they are found to resemble..the antlers of a stag, with great exactness and regularity.] 1884 R. Rathbun in G. B. Goode Fisheries U.S.: Nat. Hist. Aquatic Animals I. v. 841 Among the true stony corals are the Stag-horn Corals..and many others. 1928 Russell & Yonge Seas vii. pl. 59 (caption) Stag's Horn Coral. 1977 G. Durrell Golden Bats & Pink Pigeons v. 123 The predominant coral was Stag's horn,..like a great graveyard of all the finest Victorian deer trophies, decked out in white and electric blue. |
4. Naut. (See
quot. 1961.)
| 1923 Man. Seamanship (Admiralty) II. 87 The 15-in. cordite whips..are either taken to the motor..or to the special staghorn for lowering. 1961 F. H. Burgess Dict. Sailing 196 Staghorn, a metal bollard with two horizontal arms. |
5. Path. Used
attrib. to designate a large calculus of the kidney having the branched form of the renal pelvis that it occupies.
| 1910 Lippincott's New Med. Dict. 924/1 Stag-horn calculus. 1926 Young & Davis Young's Pract. Urol. I. vi. 377 In some extreme cases the kidney is only a thin sheet of dense scar tissue in which no trace of tubules or glomeruli can be found, overlying a large stag-horn calculus. 1961 R. D. Baker Essent. Path. xvii. 441 (caption) The large staghorn calculus is a cast of the renal pelvis and of renal calyces. 1974 J. D. Maynard in R. M. Kirk et al. Surgery viii. 161 Renal calculi may be entirely symptomless, particularly the very large staghorn type filling most of the pelvicalyceal system. |
Hence
stag-horned a. (
a) Epithet of a beetle (
cf. prec. 3). (
b)
= stag-headed a. 2.
| 1853 Mrs. Gore Dean's Daughter III. i. 6 The oldest of the trees;—its branches, staghorned at the summit. 1867 R. S. Hawker Wks. (1893) 127 A solemn grove of stag⁓horned trees. 1881 Cassell's Nat. Hist. V. Plate 59 The Stag-horned Longicorn (Acanthophorus serraticornis). |