licorne

licorne

English

Quarter-pood licorne of 1805

Etymology

From French licorne, calque of Russian единоро́г (jedinoróg, “unicorn”).

Noun

licorne (plural licornes)

1. (historical, military) A type of muzzle-loading gun-howitzer used by the Russian Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries.
   • 1824, “Answers of Sir A. D., K. C. B. of the Royal Artillery, to some questions from Lieutenant C. D. Bengal Artillery”, in The British Indian Military Repository, volume 3:

     But I think our new 24-pounder howitzer will be found superior to any of them, not even excepting the Russian Licorne.

   • 1837, T. F. Simmons, Ideas as to the Effect of Heavy Ordnance Directed Against and Applied by Ships of War, etc.:

     The Russians have a howitzer denominated licorne, the bore of which is, in its whole extent, the truncated frustrum of a cone: the only field guns in the possession of the artillery at Corfu, in 1822, were Russian guns of this description.

   • 2007, Jeff Kinard, “Eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century artillery”, in Artillery: An Illustrated History of Its Impact:

     Essentially a hybrid between a howitzer and a gun, thus a gun-howitzer, the licorne was capable of a flatter trajectory and a longer range than the conventional howitzer.

Translations

muzzle-loading gun-howitzer used by the Russian Empire

Finnish: jedinorog Russian: единоро́г (ru) m (jedinoróg) Ukrainian: єдинорі́г (uk) m (jedynoríh)

Further reading

• licorne on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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French

Etymology

From Old French unicorne via reanalysis as un icorne (with indefinite article), followed by further reanalysis of the new definite form l'icorne,[1] or from Italian alicorno, variant of liocorno.[2]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /li.kɔʁn/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

licorne f (plural licornes)

1. (mythology) unicorn
2. (heraldry) unicorn
3. (finance) unicorn (startup whose valuation has exceeded one billion U.S. dollars)

References

1. Ti Alkire; Carol Rosen (2010) Romance Languages: A Historical Introduction, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 305
2. Etymology and history of “licorne”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Further reading

• “licorne”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from French licorne.[1][2]

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /liˈkɔʁ.ni/ [liˈkɔɦ.ni]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /liˈkɔʁ.ni/ [liˈkɔɦ.ni]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /liˈkɔɾ.ni/
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /liˈkɔʁ.ni/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /liˈkɔɻ.ne/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /liˈkɔɾ.n(ɨ)/

• Hyphenation: li‧cor‧ne

Noun

licorne m (plural licornes)

1. unicorn

   Synonym: unicórnio

References

1. “licorne” in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2023.
2. “licorne” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.