On unicorns

Apropos of nothing, Namine asked me last night: “Why are unicorns called ‘unicorns’ and not ‘unihorns’ when they have a horn, not a corn?”

I said I didn’t know.

“Well, why don’t you ask Google? You know, the thing on your phone where you can ask it anything?”

So I pulled out my phone. “Okay Google, why are unicorns called unicorns?”

As it turns out, the word in Latin for horn is cornus, resulting in the word we know today. Namine was happy to know that “unicorn” does not mean “one corn,” and I was happy to find that she shares my love of etymology.

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