["M." (Oxford) refers our correspondent to Facciolati,
_Lexicon_, ed. Bailey, voc. _Corun_.]
_Horns_ (No. 24. p. 383.).--1. Moses' face, Ex. ch. xxxiv. (_karan_,
Heb.), shot out beams or _horns_ of light (from _keren_, Heb.); so the
first beams of the rising sun are by the Arabian poets compared to
horns. Absurdly rendered by Aqu. and Vulg. (facies) _cornuta erat_.
Whence painters represent Moses as having horns.--Gesenius, _Heb. Lex._
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2. There appear many reasons for likening rivers to bulls. Euripides
calls Cephisus taumomorphos, and Horace gives Aufidus the same epithet,
for the same reason probably, as makes him call it also "longe sonans,"
"violentus," and "acer;" viz., the bull-like roaring of its waters, and
the blind fury of its course, especially in flood time. Other
interpretations may be given: thus, Milton, Dryden, and others, speak of
the "horned flood," i.e., a body of water which, when it meets with any
obstruction, divides itself and becomes _horned_, as it were. See Milt.
P.L. xi. 831., and notes on the passage by Newton and Todd. Dryden
speaks of "the seven-fold _horns_ of the Nile," using the word as
equivalent to winding stream. It would be tedious to multiply examples.
3. Of this phrase I have never seen a satisfactory explanation. "Coruna
nasci" is said by Petronius, in a general sense, of one in great
distress. As applied to a cuckold, it is common to most of the modern
European languages. The Italian phrase is "becco cornuto" (horned goat),
which the Accademici della Crusca explain by averring that that animal,
unlike others can without anger bear a rival in his female's love.
"Dr. Burn, in his _History of Westmoreland_, would trace this _crest_ of
_cuckoldom_ to horns worn as crests by those who went to the Crusades,
as their armorial distinctions; to the infidelity of consorts during
their absence, and to the finger of scorn pointed at them on their
return; crested indeed, but abused."--_Todd's Johnson's Dictionary_.