unicorn
Part of speech: noun
verb
adj
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: biblical
business
finance
government
human-sciences
lifestyle
military
mysticism
mythology
philosophy
politics
religion
sciences
war
Etymology: From Middle English unicorne, unikorn, from Anglo-Norman unicorne, Old French unicorne, and their source, Latin ūnicornis, from ūnus (“one”) + cornū (“horn”). Displaced native Old English ānhorn, itself a calque.
Other senses from either rarity (e.g., possessing multiple skills) or by physical resemblance to having a horn (e.g., howitzer). The finance sense was coined by American investor Aileen Lee and first used in a 2013 article.
Base: ūnus
Inflected forms:
form: unicorns
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: unicorns
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: unicorning
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: unicorned
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: unicorned
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A mythical horse-like creature with a horn on its forehead.
pos: noun
examples: [Seb.] A liuing Drolerie: now I will beleeue / That there are Vnicornes:[…]
The unicorn who may be touched and tamed only by a chaste virgin is a lunar symbol of the ancient religion of Europe.
gloss: In various Bible translations, used to render the Latin unicornis or rhinoceros (representing Hebrew רְאֵם): a reem or wild ox.
pos: noun
examples: God brought him forth out of Egypt, he hath as it were the ſtrength of an Vnicorne: he ſhall eate vp the nations his enemies, and ſhall breake their bones, and pierce them thorow with his arrowes.
gloss: Certain animals:
pos: noun
gloss: Certain animals:
pos: noun
gloss: Certain animals:
pos: noun
gloss: Certain animals:
pos: noun
gloss: Certain animals:
pos: noun
gloss: A howitzer.
pos: noun
examples: The Sixth Inniskilling Dragoons and the First Battalion Royal Scots will be in attendance, and there will be unicorns, carricks, pursuivants, heralds, mace-bearers, ushers, and pages, together with the Purse-bearer, and the Lyon King-of-Arms, and the national anthem, and the royal salute
gloss: Someone or something that is rare and hard to find.
pos: noun
examples: On Capitol Hill, Mr. Manchin is something of a unicorn — the only national Democrat from his ruby-red state — and acts and votes accordingly.
gloss: Someone or something that is rare and hard to find.
pos: noun
tags: slang
gloss: Someone or something that is rare and hard to find.
pos: noun
examples: But I also think, “They’re looking for a unicorn — a magical designer who can solve all their problems.” It’s too bad unicorns don’t exist. … I have never met a designer who is an expert in all those skill areas. … Even if you find a unicorn designer with all those skills, actually doing all those things at your company is a huge amount of work.
He believes that good data scientists, “otherwise known as unicorn data scientists,” have three types of expertise.
gloss: Someone or something that is rare and hard to find.
pos: noun
examples: As the price of Web hosting plummeted and PCs and cell phones proliferated, college and grad-school dropouts like Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page and Sergey Brin could suddenly conjure unicorns on their laptops.
In May 2016, out of 163 global unicorns, China had 31, with a total valuation of $154 billion or about 26 percent of global unicorn valuation.
gloss: Someone or something that is rare and hard to find.
pos: noun
gloss: Being many (especially pastel) colours; multicoloured.
pos: noun
tags: attributive
examples: unicorn smoothies
gloss: A 15th-century Scottish gold coin worth 18 shillings, bearing the image of a unicorn.
pos: noun
tags: historical
gloss: To participate in a sexual threesome as a bisexual addition to an established heterosexual couple.
pos: verb
tags: slang
examples: Katja*, 27, has unicorned on two separate occasions.
“In Annie’s unicorning, she’s really able to try out other people’s relationships and see how they function from within,” Gillespie tells me.
“Everyone wants the party, but nobody likes to plan,” explains Vixen Vu, a cam model who has been unicorning since she became sexually active.
Also, Dan speaks with a bisexual man, whose first attempt at unicorning (yes, we verbed the word "unicorn,") went poorly, mainly due to his straight couple maybe getting a little too drunky?
gloss: To exceed a valuation of one billion U.S. dollars, while solely backed by venture capitalists.
pos: verb
examples: Since Waze, Soluto and Onavo, both Israeli startups, have had great exits in consumer tech, and Wix “unicorned” through its IPO.
For eager investors looking to score in a future IPO, the eight still-private martech unicorns might be tempting. That list includes Domo, Slack, Sprinklr, Shopify, and EventBrite, all of which have “unicorned,” or surpassed the billion-dollar valuation mark, in the past year or two.
For instance, at the same time as Intercom was announcing its unicorning moment, a young Dublin tech company called Let's Get Checked (letsgetchecked.com) raised €10m in a funding round.
gloss: Having one horn.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
gloss: Rare and hard to find.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
Related words: alicorn
bicorne
blessing
monoceros
qilin
kirin
reem
tricorn
tricorne
Derived words: African unicorn
Asian unicorn
bunnicorn
bunnycorn
Chinese unicorn
half-unicorn
Invisible Pink Unicorn
pegacorn
rainbows and unicorns
rainbow unicorns
sea unicorn
Siberian unicorn
unicorn bait
unicorn barf
unicorn beast
unicorn hunter
unicorn hunting
unicornic
unicornlike
unicorn plant
unicorn puke
unicorn root
unicorn vomit
unicornity
Translations:
lang: Afrikaans
word: eenhoring
lang: Albanian
word: briqen
lang: Albanian
word: njëbrirësh
lang: Arabic
word: أُحَادِيُّ القَرْن
roman: ʔuḥādiyyu l-qarn
lang: Arabic
word: حَرِيش
roman: ḥarīš
lang: Arabic
word: يُونِيكُورْن
roman: yūnīkūrn
lang: Armenian
word: միեղջյուր
roman: mieġǰyur
lang: Asturian
word: unicorniu
lang: Azerbaijani
word: təkbuynuz
lang: Bashkir
word: һыңармөгөҙ
roman: hıñarmögöź
lang: Basque
word: adarbakar
lang: Belarusian
word: аднаро́г
roman: adnaróh
lang: Breton
word: unkorneg
lang: Bulgarian
word: иноро́г
roman: inoróg
lang: Bulgarian
word: едноро́г
roman: ednoróg
lang: Catalan
word: unicorn
lang: Cherokee
word: ᏐᏈᎵ ᎤᏟᎩ
roman: soquili utligi
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 獨角獸 /独角兽
roman: dújiǎoshòu
lang: Czech
word: jednorožec
lang: Danish
word: enhjørning
lang: Dutch
word: eenhoorn
lang: Esperanto
word: unukornulo
lang: Estonian
word: ükssarvik
lang: Faroese
word: einhyrningur
lang: Finnish
word: yksisarvinen
lang: French
word: licorne
lang: West-Frisian
word: ienhoarn
lang: Galician
word: unicornio
lang: Georgian
word: მარტორქა
roman: marṭorka
lang: German
word: Einhorn
lang: Greek
word: μονόκερως
roman: monókeros
lang: Ancient Greek
word: μονόκερως
roman: monókerōs
lang: Greenlandic
word: enhjørningi
lang: Greenlandic
word: tuugaalik
lang: Hebrew
word: חַד־קֶרֶן
roman: chad-qeren
lang: Hindi
word: इकसिंगा
roman: iksiṅgā
lang: Hungarian
word: unikornis
lang: Hungarian
word: egyszarvú
lang: Icelandic
word: einhyrningur
lang: Ido
word: unikorno
lang: Indonesian
word: unikorn
lang: Indonesian
word: kuda bertanduk
lang: Irish
word: aonbheannach
lang: Italian
word: unicorno
lang: Italian
word: liocorno
lang: Japanese
word: 麒麟
roman: kirin
lang: Japanese
word: 一角獣
roman: ikkakujū
lang: Japanese
word: ユニコーン
roman: yunikōn
lang: Japanese
word: 一角馬
roman: ikkakuba
lang: Javanese
word: unikorn
lang: Kazakh
word: жалғыз мүйіз
roman: jalğyz müiız
lang: Khmer
word: សេះស្នែងមួយ
roman: sehsnaengmuəy
lang: Korean
word: 유니콘
roman: yunikon
lang: Korean
word: 일각수
roman: ilgaksu
lang: Latin
word: ūnicornis
lang: Latvian
word: vienradzis
lang: Lithuanian
word: vienaragis
lang: Luxembourgish
word: Eenhar
lang: Macedonian
word: е́днорог
roman: édnorog
lang: Malay
word: kuda sumbu
lang: Malay
word: rusa senggerek
lang: Malay
word: unikorn
lang: Maltese
word: unikorn
lang: Manchu
word: ᡠᡳᡥᡝᡵᡳᠨ
roman: uiherin
lang: Manx
word: un-eairkagh
lang: Māori
word: unikanga
lang: Marathi
word: युनिकॉर्न
roman: yunikŏrna
lang: Eastern Mari
word: иктӱкан
roman: iktükan
lang: Middle English
word: unicorne
lang: Navajo
word: łį́į́ʼ bideeʼłáaʼii
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: enhjørning
lang: Norwegian Nynorsk
word: einhyrning
lang: Ojibwe
word: ningodeshkani
lang: Old English
word: ānhorn
lang: Persian
word: تکشاخ
roman: tek shâkh
lang: Polish
word: jednorożec
lang: Portuguese
word: unicórnio
lang: Portuguese
word: licorne
lang: Romanian
word: unicorn
lang: Romanian
word: licorn
lang: Romanian
word: inorog
lang: Romansh
word: unicorn
lang: Russian
word: единоро́г
roman: jedinoróg
lang: Scots
word: unicorn
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: aon-adharcach
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: sròin-adharcach
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: biast-na-sgrogaig
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: је̏днорог
lang: Serbo-Croatian
word: jȅdnorog
lang: Slovak
word: jednorožec
lang: Slovene
word: samorog
lang: Slovene
word: enorog
lang: Upper Sorbian
word: jednorohač
lang: Spanish
word: unicornio
lang: Swahili
word: farasi-pembemoja
lang: Swedish
word: enhörning
lang: Tagalog
word: unikornyo
lang: Tamil
word: கொம்புக் குதிரை
roman: kompuk kutirai
lang: Tatar
word: бермөгез
roman: bermögez
lang: Thai
word: ยูนิคอร์น
roman: yuu-ní-kɔɔn
lang: Turkish
word: tek boynuzlu at
lang: Turkish
word: tekboynuz
lang: Turkish
word: kilin
lang: Ukrainian
word: єдинорі́г
roman: jedynoríh
lang: Urdu
word: ارنا گھوڑا
lang: Uzbek
word: bir jinsli
lang: Vietnamese
word: kì lân
lang: Volapük
word: balhon
lang: Volapük
word: bahon
lang: Walloon
word: licoine
lang: Welsh
word: uncorn
lang: Yiddish
word: איינהאָרן
roman: eynhorn