Also † unicorn horn. [See UNICORN 1.]
1. A horn regarded as or alleged to be obtained from the legendary unicorn, but in reality that of the rhinoceros, narwhal, or other animal, freq. mounted or made into a drinking cup and employed as a preventive of or charm against poison.
α. 1451. Lincoln Diocese Doc. (1914), 51. A ryng of vnicorn horne.
1555. Reg. Gild Co. Chr. York (1872), 207. I give to Sir Thomas Chaloner, knyghte, my unicorn horne.
c. 1650. Invent. Goods Chas. I., in Pegge, Curalia (1806), IV. 122. An unicorn horn.
β. 1549. Thomas, Hist. Italie, 80 b. Two fayre vnicornes hornes.
1564. Bulleyn, Dial. agst. Pest., 74. A pece of a Unicornes horne, good against poison.
1603. Lodge, Treat. Plague, Wks. (Hunter. Cl.), IV. 61. The horne of that beast which … the simple sorte [call] vnicornes horne.
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2227/4. There will be exposed to Sale … considerable quantities of Drugs, Colours, and Unicorns Horns.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., What ordinarily passes among us for Unicorn’s Horn,… we are assured by Pereyra … to be the Tooth of a large Fish of the Whale Kind.
1838. Prescott, Ferd. & Is., I. vii. 383. He is said to have kept a reputed unicorn’s horn always on his table.
b. Narwhal’s horn.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. 412. A shaft of unicorn’s horn.
† 2. The material of this powdered or prepared as a drug and used medicinally, esp. as an antidote against poison. Obs.
1590. E. Webbe, Trav. (Arb.), 35. Some lewde Gunners … gaue me poyson in drinke…; his Phisition … gaue me speadely Unicorns horne to drinke.
1631. Jorden, Nat. Bathes, vii. (1632), 44. This volatill salt … is commonly very Diaphoreticke: & this it is which makes our … supposed Vnicornes horne to be in such esteeme.
1698. New Descr. Moscovy, 21. Likewise some use the Powder to Antedote Poison, as the Vnicorns horne; this I hold to be the same with the Morse.
3. Bot. (See quot.)
1864. Chambers’s Encycl., VI. 393. The root of Helonias dioica is used … as an anthelmintic…. The plant … is called Starwort and Blazing Star, also Unicorn’s Horn. [Cf. unicorn-plant, -root s.v. UNICORN 11.]
