slughorn
nounUK /ˈslʌɡhɔːn/ · US /ˈslʌɡˌhɔɹn/
Etymology
See slogan. Sense 1 (“wind instrument”) is due to an incorrect use of the word slughorn (sense 2: “battle cry”) by the English poet Thomas Chatterton (1752–1770) in his 1760s pseudo-Medieval poetry. He described the fictional instrument in footnotes as “warlike instruments of music” (Ælla, a Tragycal Enterlude), “a musical instrument not unlike a hautboy” (Eclogue the Second), and “war trumpets” (Battle of Hastings (No. 2)). The erroneous sense was then continued by the English poet and playwright Robert Browning (1812–1889) in his 1855 poem Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came. The use by English author Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) in 1989 is a deliberate allusion to Chatterton.
Nonstandard, Rare A certain fictional wind instrument.
- Sounde, sounde the slughornes, to bee hearde fromm farre.1767, Thomas Chatterton, The Tournament, line 150:
- [...] And yet / Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set / And blew. "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came."1855, Robert Browning, “‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.’”, in Men and Women […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, stanza 34, page 148:
1 more example
- The horn sounded a third challenge. / 'That's a slug-horn, that is,' said Colin knowledgeably. 'Like a tocsin, only deeper.'1989, Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!, page 153:
Obsolete Obsolete spelling of slogan (“a battle cry among the ancient Irish or highlanders of Scotland”).