> as lemmas

a. A fierce and elusive mythical creature with long serrated horns, said to haunt the banks of the Euphrates river; (now more fully heraldic antelope) a heraldic animal representing this (often depicted also with a spiked nose, and a tufted mane and long tail). Now archaic or historical.This use reflects the accounts in Greek, Latin, and Old French bestiaries of an exotic animal, perhaps originally based on reports of the oryx. The separation from sense 1b was not at first entirely distinct, as early scientific descriptions (e.g. that of Topsell: cf. quot. 1607 at sense 1b) continue to include fantastic elements, such as the animal's supposed ability to saw off the branches of trees with its horns, but these are absent from the factual account of the ‘antilope’ by John Ray ( Synopsis methodica animalia quadrupedum (1693) 79). In modern heraldry the mythical creature is generally called heraldic antelope to distinguish it from representations of the natural animal.In quot. a1460 figurative, alluding to a royal emblem of Henry V.