4 ms·

Fun fact: Some people think the aurochs is the animal mistranslated as "unicorn" a few times in the King James Bible. Most newer translations just say "wild oxe

Fun fact: Some people think the aurochs is the animal mistranslated as "unicorn" a few times in the King James Bible. Most newer translations just say "wild oxen" instead.

mkoubaa 5y ago
I would have assumed it was the Eurasian wooly whino
dane-pgp 5y ago
I'm not sure if "mistranslated" really captures the thought process that went into the King James Bible translation. While aurochs had died out in Britain thousands of years earlier, the legend of the unicorn (probably from Greek knowledge of the Indian rhinoceros) was alive and well throughout the Middle Ages, with distinctly religious symbolism attached. So, when faced with an unclear Hebrew word for an animal that no English speaker would have ever seen or heard of, and one that represented a wild, horned quadruped, the translators seemingly took the sensible choice of recycling a word that readers and listeners would be familiar with, at the expense of a taxonomic accuracy that was not available to them.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  > when faced with an unclear Hebrew word I thought the King James Version was translated into English from Greek (which was translated from Hebrew). I mention it because, if true, the opportunity for “lost in translation” is greater.
  - kadoban 5y ago
    I believe it was from a mix of Greek, Hebrew and a couple of others, mostly depending on which section. I couldn't say which bits these references would have been from. Yeah there's a _lot_ of room for mistranslations or just doing the best they could.
  - edflsafoiewq 5y ago
    The KJV is eclectic, but you're correct the rendering "unicorn" is from the Septuagint (monokeros).
  - Thorrez 5y ago
    >In common with most other translations of the period, the New Testament was translated from Greek, the Old Testament from Hebrew and Aramaic, and the Apocrypha from Greek and Latin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version >The word “unicorn” appears in the King James Version nine times – in Numbers 23:22 and 24:8, Deuteronomy 33:17, Job 39:9,10, Psalms 22:21, 29:6 and 92:10 and in Isaiah 34:7. https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars/2011/08/are-there-really-unicorns-in-the-king-james-bible.html https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/on_the_front_lines_of_t... Those listed books are all in the (non-Apocrypha) Old Testament, meaning they were translated form Hebrew and/or Aramaic.
- tomrod 5y ago
  Mistranslation captures it well in present connotations.
dudeinjapan 5y ago
Why is no one trying to create unicorns? Would much rather have unicorns than boring old aurochs. Just splice in some rhinoceros DNA...

Fun fact: Some people think the aurochs is the animal mistranslated as "unicorn" a few times in the King James Bible. Most newer translations just say "wild oxen" instead.

mkoubaa 5y ago

I would have assumed it was the Eurasian wooly whino

dane-pgp 5y ago

I'm not sure if "mistranslated" really captures the thought process that went into the King James Bible translation. While aurochs had died out in Britain thousands of years earlier, the legend of the unicorn (probably from Greek knowledge of the Indian rhinoceros) was alive and well throughout the Middle Ages, with distinctly religious symbolism attached. So, when faced with an unclear Hebrew word for an animal that no English speaker would have ever seen or heard of, and one that represented a wild, horned quadruped, the translators seemingly took the sensible choice of recycling a word that readers and listeners would be familiar with, at the expense of a taxonomic accuracy that was not available to them.

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
> when faced with an unclear Hebrew word I thought the King James Version was translated into English from Greek (which was translated from Hebrew). I mention it because, if true, the opportunity for “lost in translation” is greater.
- kadoban 5y ago
  I believe it was from a mix of Greek, Hebrew and a couple of others, mostly depending on which section. I couldn't say which bits these references would have been from. Yeah there's a _lot_ of room for mistranslations or just doing the best they could.
- edflsafoiewq 5y ago
  The KJV is eclectic, but you're correct the rendering "unicorn" is from the Septuagint (monokeros).
- Thorrez 5y ago
  >In common with most other translations of the period, the New Testament was translated from Greek, the Old Testament from Hebrew and Aramaic, and the Apocrypha from Greek and Latin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version >The word “unicorn” appears in the King James Version nine times – in Numbers 23:22 and 24:8, Deuteronomy 33:17, Job 39:9,10, Psalms 22:21, 29:6 and 92:10 and in Isaiah 34:7. https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/on_the_front_lines_of_the_culture_wars/2011/08/are-there-really-unicorns-in-the-king-james-bible.html https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/on_the_front_lines_of_t... Those listed books are all in the (non-Apocrypha) Old Testament, meaning they were translated form Hebrew and/or Aramaic.
tomrod 5y ago
Mistranslation captures it well in present connotations.

dudeinjapan 5y ago

Why is no one trying to create unicorns? Would much rather have unicorns than boring old aurochs. Just splice in some rhinoceros DNA...