Hormogonium to Horrent
Hormogonium
(||Hor`mo*go*ni"um) n. [NL., fr. Gr. a chain + generation.] (Bot.) A chain of small cells
in certain algæ, by which the plant is propagated.
Horn
(Horn) n. [AS. horn; akin to D. horen, hoorn, G., Icel., Sw., & Dan. horn, Goth. haúrn, W., Gael.,
& Ir. corn, L. cornu, Gr. and perh. also to E. cheer, cranium, cerebral; cf. Skr. çiras head.
Cf. Carat, Corn on the foot, Cornea, Corner, Cornet, Cornucopia, Hart.]
1. A hard, projecting, and usually pointed organ, growing upon the heads of certain animals, esp. of
the ruminants, as cattle, goats, and the like. The hollow horns of the Ox family consist externally of true
horn, and are never shed.
2. The antler of a deer, which is of bone throughout, and annually shed and renewed.
3. (Zoöl.) Any natural projection or excrescence from an animal, resembling or thought to resemble a
horn in substance or form; esp.: (a) A projection from the beak of a bird, as in the hornbill. (b) A tuft of
feathers on the head of a bird, as in the horned owl. (c) A hornlike projection from the head or thorax
of an insect, or the head of a reptile, or fish. (d) A sharp spine in front of the fins of a fish, as in the
horned pout.
4. (Bot.) An incurved, tapering and pointed appendage found in the flowers of the milkweed
5. Something made of a horn, or in resemblance of a horn; as: (a) A wind instrument of music; originally,
one made of a horn (of an ox or a ram); now applied to various elaborately wrought instruments of brass
or other metal, resembling a horn in shape. "Wind his horn under the castle wall." Spenser. See French
horn, under French. (b) A drinking cup, or beaker, as having been originally made of the horns of
cattle. "Horns of mead and ale." Mason. (c) The cornucopia, or horn of plenty. See Cornucopia. "Fruits
and flowers from Amalthæa's horn." Milton. (d) A vessel made of a horn; esp., one designed for containing
powder; anciently, a small vessel for carrying liquids. "Samuel took the hornof oil and anointed him [David]."
1 Sam. xvi. 13. (e) The pointed beak of an anvil. (f) The high pommel of a saddle; also, either of the
projections on a lady's saddle for supporting the leg. (g) (Arch.) The Ionic volute. (h) (Naut.) The
outer end of a crosstree; also, one of the projections forming the jaws of a gaff, boom, etc. (i) (Carp.)
A curved projection on the fore part of a plane. (j) One of the projections at the four corners of the
Jewish altar of burnt offering. "Joab . . . caught hold on the horns of the altar." 1 Kings ii. 28.
6. One of the curved ends of a crescent; esp., an extremity or cusp of the moon when crescent- shaped.
The moon
Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns.
Thomson. 7. (Mil.) The curving extremity of the wing of an army or of a squadron drawn up in a crescentlike
form.
Sharpening in mooned horns
Their phalanx.
Milton. 8. The tough, fibrous material of which true horns are composed, being, in the Ox family, chiefly albuminous,
with some phosphate of lime; also, any similar substance, as that which forms the hoof crust of horses,
sheep, and cattle; as, a spoon of horn.
9. (Script.) A symbol of strength, power, glory, exaltation, or pride.
The Lord is . . . the horn of my salvation.
Ps. xviii. 2. 10. An emblem of a cuckold; — used chiefly in the plural. "Thicker than a cuckold's horn." Shak.
Horn block, the frame or pedestal in which a railway car axle box slides up and down; — also called
horn plate. — Horn of a dilemma. See under Dilemma. — Horn distemper, a disease of cattle,
affecting the internal substance of the horn. — Horn drum, a wheel with long curved scoops, for raising
