licorne
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.04 in modern English
9
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
1
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A type of muzzle-loading gun-howitzer used by the Russian Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Example Sentences
- "But I think our new 24-pounder howitzer will be found superior to any of them, not even excepting the Russian Licorne."
- "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."
- "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."
Etymology
From French licorne, semantic loan from Russian единоро́г (jedinoróg, literally “unicorn”), in reference to the unicorn on the coat of arms of count P. I. Shuvalov, who introduced this type of artillery piece. Doublet of unicorn.
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
- Root: licorne