Formal/scientific word meaning to have horns

Question

Need a one-word scientific/biology domain solution for this sentence (to express they all have horns):

Deer, ibex and bovine are all _______ animals.

So the Greek for horn is κέρας, and we have precedent for using Greek suffixes, namely that of Head" cephalos, so might we term it as keracephalos?

I searched that term and nothing came up though. On the other hand, I would be nothing short of shocked if there were truly no one-word solution for this concept -- especially since we are in the domain of biology which has such an endowed vocabulary, which to the Biology outsiders, has a seemingly unnecessary level of specificity, yet for Biologist's purposes, they must have it this way for their research.

Consider:

• Polycephaly (multiple heads)
• Parthenogenesis (virginal birth, hyperovulation)
• Quadrupedal (four-legged)
• Ect.

Surely a word "to have horns" would be less abstract and offer utility beyond many of the above examples.

Answer 1

The word is horned, defined by Merriam-Webster as (among other things):

one of the usually paired bony processes that arise from the head of many ungulates and that are found in some extinct mammals and reptiles [...].

That's a fine word that conveys exactly what you mean. Yes, biologists, like other scientists and experts in various fields, do like their esoteric jargon, but even we aren't that desperate to show off that we would reject a perfectly decent word just to invent a new one.

There are dozens of species whose common name includes horned, and more than a thousand occurrences of the word horned in the scientific literature (a few random examples below):

A genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed using 34 two-horned and 32 four-horned sheep from three Chinese indigenous breeds:

(source: Anim Genet. 2016 Oct;47(5):623-7. doi: 10.1111/age.12464.)

Within the Orthoptera, the family Acrididae contains about 6700 species of short-horned grasshoppers.

(source: J Chem Ecol. 2022 Feb;48(2):121-140. doi: 10.1007/s10886-021-01333-3.)

In this article, we review and summarize recent progress in the development of horned beetles and beetle horns

(source: Wiley Interdiscip Rev Dev Biol. 2013 May-Jun;2(3):405-18. doi: 10.1002/wdev.81.

So don't reinvent the wheel, use horned, that's what it's for.

Deer, ibex and bovines are all horned animals.

Answer 2

If we insist on using Greek: κεράσφορος, which we might be content in rendering as "kerasphoric". However, the term has no real precedent.

Latin would give us: cornigerous, which does have some mainstream recognition.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cornigerous

Thanks for all interested and those offering suggestions

Answer 3

I'm surprised that no one has brought up cornute. I think it has a nice ring to it.

Deer, ibex and bovine are all cornute animals.

The word is from Latin cornūtus ("horned, having horns"). Here's an example of use from an 1898 book:

This is further illustrated by the action of the two domestic cornute animals, butting and rebutting one another.

The term has also been used in reference to cuckolds, who were associated with "having horns", although I doubt anyone would be making that connection today.

Further reading:

• https://www.oed.com/dictionary/cornute_adj
• https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cornute

Answer 4

There is nothing wrong with the term horned, it is understandable to all anglophone speakers. However, the OP is looking for a scientific and formal term; someone in the comments suggested cornigerous, certainly it is an obscure word but there are numerous instances of it in Google books, when taxonomic names inspired by Latin and Greek were held in higher esteem than today.

The meaning of unicorn is easily understood, so I asked myself whether bicorn existed, meaning a creature with two horns. There is the bicorn(e) hat, famously worn by Napoleon, and soon after I unearthed bicornis. For example, the south-western black rhinoceros's Latin name is Diceros bicornis occidentalis and the great hornbill, which has two horn-like protrusions on its beak, is scientifically called Buceros bicornis.

The great hornbill was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the rhinoceros hornbill in the genus Buceros and coined the binomial name Buceros bicornis. The genus name is from Latin becerus meaning "horned like an ox" which in turn is from the Ancient Greek boukerōs which combines bous meaning "ox" with kerōs meaning "horn". The specific bicornis is Latin and means "two-horned".
Wikipedia

Answer 5

Coming from the German point of view: We have the word "Stirnwaffenträger", which means something like "bearer of a forehead weapon" or "forehead weapon carrier". This term consolidates all animals, which have antlers, horns, boney protrusions, etc. Everything that is on a forehead and can be used as a weapon mostly.

The English Wikipedia article for Stirnwaffenträger is Pecora.

Answer 6

There isn't one suitable for a formal discussion.

bovine horns are different from deer antlers are different from giraffe horns are different from rhino horns are different from pronghorn horns.

Answer 7

Semi-related, but there's of course the suffix cera:

-cera
noun combining form
sərə
plural-cera
: horned one : horned ones —in taxonomic names in zoology
Acrocera
Cladocera
Nematocera