slughorn

English

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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈslʌɡhɔːn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈslʌɡˌhɔɹn/, [ˈsləɡ-]
• Hyphenation: slug‧horn

Noun

slughorn (plural slughorns)

1. (nonstandard, rare) A wind instrument.
   • 1767, Thomas Chatterton, The Tournament, line 150:

     Sounde, sounde the slughornes, to bee hearde fromm farre.

   • 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:

     [...] And yet / Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set / And blew "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came."

   • 1989, Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!, page 153:

     The horn sounded a third challenge. / 'That's a slug-horn, that is,' said Colin knowledgeably. 'Like a tocsin, only deeper.'

2. Obsolete spelling of slogan (“a battle cry among the ancient Irish or highlanders of Scotland”) [17th–19th c.]

Alternative forms

• (wind instrument): slug-horn