unicorny
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Forms: form: more unicorny
form: most unicorny
Etymology: From unicorn + -y.
Senses: examples: text: Then the frigging spray-and-pray began all over again and I caught another fragment—this one a splinter of wood that stuck me in the forehead giving me a very Unicorny look.
ref: 2001, Richard Marcinko, John Weisman, Detachment Bravo, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, published 2002, pages 245–246:
text: Would you describe yourself as unicorny? I have: A. One horn in the middle of my head. B. No horns. True or false: I am a unicorn.
ref: 2006, Wendy Molyneux, “Questions from the FBI Employment Application Meant to Filter Out Unicorns Disguised as People”, in Mountain Man Dance Moves: The McSweeney’s Book of Lists, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 27:
text: “Light pink or dark pink hair?” Delia was still fixated on this point. / “Light. It was more white than pink, but sometimes, if light caught it the right way, you could make out the second color.” / “Kind of unicorny?” / Sometimes Delia and I were on the exact same page as well. / “Yeah,” I said, a smile creeping over my lips. “Kind of unicorny.”
ref: 2008, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Fate, New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →ISBN, page 121:
text: Before I draw her unicorny features, she kind of looks like a dinosaur.
ref: 2014, Dana Simpson, Phoebe and Her Unicorn, Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel Publishing, →ISBN, page 216:
text: I shake my mane, trying to free myself of these base thoughts. And remember that I am the Unicorn. I. Will. Focus. I wait patiently to order my slice. Do not even stamp my hoof. Not once. I cast my unicorny eye around the pizza parlor to locate my adversaries.
ref: 2016, Helaine Becker, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie (Dirk Daring, Secret Agent; 2), Victoria, B.C.: Orca Book Publishers, →ISBN:
text: A potty-mouthed lover of all things typographic and unicorny, she creates work that is lovely, irreverent, and shiny.
ref: 2017, Andy J. Miller, “Carolyn Sewell”, in Creative Pep Talk: Inspiration from 50 Artists, San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books, →ISBN:
text: The idea is that given a context, ‘unicorn’ (‘groundhog’, etc.) is associated with a similarity metric that determines a mapping from each world w to a set of things that county as unicorns (groundhogs, etc.) at w relative to that context. This allows for variation in what makes something sufficiently unicorny (groundhoggy, etc.) for the purposes at hand.
ref: 2018, Paul M. Pietroski, Conjoining Meanings: Semantics Without Truth Values, Oxford, Oxon: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 15:
text: Get a big old glass, preferably a clear one so you can see the unicorny colors.
ref: 2018, Mary Flannery, Unicorn Your Life: Wondrous Ways to Make Everything More Magical, New York, N.Y.: Sterling, →ISBN:
text: BONUS STEP: Add a horn / If you want to make your cupcakes extra unicorny, break out the marzipan.
ref: 2020, Penelope Gwynne, For Unicorn Lovers Only: History, Mythology, Facts, and More, New York, N.Y.: Ferwel and Friends, →ISBN:
text: For this year’s Hoofapalooza, Mayor Mare called Cornelius to Town Hall for a special request. “I want the most UN-UNICORNY hat you can make!” the mayor said.
ref: 2020, Jason Tharp, It’s Okay to Be a Unicorn!, New York, N.Y.: Imprint, →ISBN:
text: “Still, it doesn’t seem very unicorny to keep a wartle in your mane.”
ref: 2020, Lou Anders, Once Upon a Unicorn, New York, N.Y.: Crown Books for Young Readers, →ISBN:
text: That’s the trouble with unicorn colours. There are so many to choose from. […] “SEE!” I said, taking a packet out of the bathroom cabinet. “Actual hair dye!” / “It doesn’t look very unicorny,” said Gabby, frowning at the colour on the packet.
ref: 2021, Kes Gray, Daisy and the Trouble with Unicorns, London: Puffin, →ISBN:
synonyms: unicornic
glosses: Resembling or characteristic of a unicorn.
examples: text: As Tom Cruise’s love, Princess Lili, in the unicorny fairy tale Legend, she ranges from Ivory girl to mascara-tarred vampire.
ref: 1986 May 19, David Handelman, “Brief Lives: That Girl”, in New York, volume 19, number 20, New York, N.Y.: News America Publishing, Inc., page 22:
text: CocoRosie’s Bianca Casady explains the horny, unicorny cover art to their haunted toybox opus Noah’s Ark (Touch And Go).
ref: 2004, CMJ New Music Monthly, number 135, New York, N.Y.: The CMJ Network, →ISSN, page 58:
text: A mere month from ground zero (all the kancerfolk revved from zero to hero), she no longer needed to listen to CDs to trance out, she was a quick study and by then could guide her own meditation, levitating and vipassanating without aural aid to a private fantasy island, mystical cave or black sand beach, some safe bespoke exhilarating unicorny place, any airy-faerie (or not) conjuring that might serve as a light to shine its incorporeal voltage down on her daughter’s wayward cells, defusing/disarming/disrupting with its otherworldly assassin energy, blasting all those fucked up cells to Kingdom Come or wherever.
ref: 2012, Bruce Wagner, Dead Stars, New York, N.Y.: Blue Rider Press, →ISBN:
text: “I’m never scared,” Haylie proclaimed, twirling one long blonde strand around her finger and reaching for the gingerbread man-shaped player pieces. “Can I be the blue boy?” / “Um, sure.” I was surprised that Haylie wanted to use the boy piece, since she loves anything glittery or pink or unicorny.
ref: 2016, Sarah S. Reida, Monsterville: A Lissa Black Production, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN:
text: Thus, ‘There could be unicorns’ may be understood to mean ‘The actual world could contain unicorns,’ which in turn paraphrases neatly into ‘There is a possibly-unicorn-containing actual world.’ Here the actual world is ascribed an unusual kind of property, that of possibly having a unicorny part so to speak.
ref: 2018, Uriah Kriegel, Brentano’s Philosophical System: Mind, Being, Value, Oxford, Oxon: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 115:
text: I got a unicorn duvet, unicorn lampshade and unicorn lamp. The lamp’s really cool, the light changes colour, all sort of unicorn colours really, like light blue and light pink and light green. And I got a unicorn rug and a massive unicorn teddy. […] Then, we went back to the house, super quick, and unpacked everything and made my room all unicorny and cosy, then we went to the pub for dinner.
ref: 2019, Sarah Hope, Christmas at Corner Cottage, London: Boldwood Books Ltd, published 2023, →ISBN:
glosses: Containing unicorns.