Alicorns

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A creature in mythology depicted as a unicorn with wings ; a term used to describe the mythical horn of a unicorn itself ; an emblem in fantasy contexts combining horse, horn, and bird-like wings
2. A legendary beast characterized by a single spiraled horn and feathered wings ; a designation for the horn attributed magical properties in folklore ; a hybrid figure appearing in various tales merging equine and avian features
3. A fictional equine entity bearing both a pointed horn and large feathered appendages ; the name of a unicorn’s horn often featured in stories and allegories ; a symbol or character type combining unicorn attributes with wings in fantasy narratives

Etymology: Alicorn is a word for the unicorn's counterpart, a winged one, and its plural "alicorns" simply names more than one of these creatures. The singular was borrowed from Italian "alicorno," and that Italian form was itself already tied to the unicorn, so the word was never a neutral description of wings at all. The "ala" in the word is Latin for "wing," and it appears to have been folded in later, as if "alicorn" were a blend of that Latin word with "unicorn." This sense of a winged horned beast was popularised in English far more recently than the word's older uses, through Piers Anthony's fantasy novel "Bearing an Hourglass" (1984) and the other fantasy books he wrote, which made the winged unicorn a familiar fixture of modern fiction.

Synonyms: unicorn horn