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Unicorn
Definitions
- 1 Having one horn. not-comparable
- 2 Rare and hard to find. not-comparable
- 1 A mythical horse, widely believed to exist until the 17th century, with a single, straight, spiraled horn projecting from its forehead.
"[Seb.] A liuing Drolerie: now I will beleeue / That there are Vnicornes:[…]"
- 2 an imaginary creature represented as a white horse with a long horn growing from its forehead wordnet
- 3 In various Bible translations, used to render the Latin unicornis or rhinoceros (representing Hebrew רְאֵם): a reem or wild ox.
"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."
- 4 Any large beetle having a horn-like prominence on the head or prothorax, especially the Hercules beetle, Dynastes tityus.
- 5 A caterpillar, Schizura unicornis, with a large thorn-like spine on the back near its head.
Show 11 more definitions
- 6 The kamichi, or unicorn bird.
- 7 A howitzer.
"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"
- 8 Someone or something that is rare and hard to find.
"On Capitol Hill, Mr. Manchin is something of a unicorn — the only national Democrat from his ruby-red state — and acts and votes accordingly."
- 9 Someone or something that is rare and hard to find.; A single, usually bisexual woman who participates in swinging or polyamory. slang
- 10 Someone or something that is rare and hard to find.; A person with multidisciplinary expertise, especially a laundry list of three or more skills in a young field such as UX design or data science (e.g., domain knowledge, statistics, and software engineering).
"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."
- 11 Someone or something that is rare and hard to find.; A startup company whose valuation has exceeded one billion U.S. dollars, which is solely backed by venture capitalists, and which has yet to have an IPO.
"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."
- 12 Someone or something that is rare and hard to find.; A fan with serious aspirations to become romantically involved with a VTuber (i.e., the streamer behind the avatar).
- 13 Being many (especially pastel) colours; multicoloured. attributive
"unicorn smoothies"
- 14 A 15th-century Scottish gold coin worth 18 shillings, bearing the image of a unicorn. historical
- 15 Certain animals:; A Siberian unicorn, †Elasmotherium sibiricum.
- 16 Certain animals:; An Asian unicorn, or saola, Pseudoryx nghetinhensis.
- 1 To participate in a sexual threesome as a bisexual addition to an established heterosexual couple. slang
"Katja*, 27, has unicorned on two separate occasions."
- 2 To exceed a valuation of one billion U.S. dollars, while solely backed by venture capitalists.
"Since Waze, Soluto and Onavo, both Israeli startups, have had great exits in consumer tech, and Wix “unicorned” through its IPO."
Etymology
From Middle English unicorne, unikorn, from Anglo-Norman unicorne, Old French unicorne, and their source, Latin ūnicornis, from ūnus (“one”) + cornū (“horn”). 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.
From Middle English unicorne, unikorn, from Anglo-Norman unicorne, Old French unicorne, and their source, Latin ūnicornis, from ūnus (“one”) + cornū (“horn”). 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.
From Middle English unicorne, unikorn, from Anglo-Norman unicorne, Old French unicorne, and their source, Latin ūnicornis, from ūnus (“one”) + cornū (“horn”). 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.
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