monoceros
(məˈnɒsərɒs)
Also 4–5 monoceron, 7 -cerot.
[a. OF. monoceros, monoceron, a. L. monoceros, med.L. also monoceron, a. Gr. µονόκερως, -κερωτ-, f. µόνο-ς mono- + κέρας horn.]
† 1. The unicorn. Obs.
| 13.. K. Alis. 6539 A best ther is..That is y-cleped Monoceros. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P. R. xviii. xc. (1495) 839 Monoceron is a wyld beest moste shape like to the horse in bodi. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 206 The Licorne or Monoceros. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iv. i. iv. (1624) 303 A Monocerots horne. 1656 Trapp Comm. James iii. 7 Some creatures indeed may be taken, but not tamed, as the tiger, panther, monoceros. 1684 tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. vi. 239 [He] cured several of the Plague, onely by applying a piece of the Monocerot's horn. 1749 J. Pointer Oxon. Acad. 160 [In the Musæum] Monoceros and Rhinoceros Horns. |
† 2. A fish having a ‘horn’, as the saw-fish, sword-fish, or narwhal. Obs.
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. xii. 23 Bright Scolopendraes arm'd with silver scales; Mighty Monoceros with immeasured tayles. 1635 Swan Spec. M. (1670) 329 The Monoceros or a fish with one horn may fitly be called the Sea-Unicorn. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Monoceros... Also the Saw-fish. 1825 G. Paxton Illustr. Holy Script. (ed. 2) I. 89 The Monoceros is a native of the Indian seas. |
3. Astron. The zodiacal constellation of the Unicorn, lying between Canis Major and Canis Minor.
| 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XII. 239/2. 1839 Penny Cycl. XV. 340/1. |
4. A genus of prosobranchiate gasteropods (Lamarck 1809), so called from the prominent spine on the outer lip; the unicorn-shell.
| 1828 J. Fleming Hist. Brit. Anim. 342. 1851–6 Woodward Mollusca 113. |