Forms: 6 bycorne, 8 bickhorn, 9 bickorne, 7– bickern. [a. F. bigorne (= Sp. vigornia, It. bicornia):—L. bicornia, pl. of bicornis two-horned, f. bi- two + cornu horn.] orig. An anvil with two projecting taper ends; later (under the influence of popular etymology; see BEAK-IRON) applied to: One such taper end of an anvil.
1547. Salesbury, Welsh Dict., Eingion gyrioc, a bycorne.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 3. A Black Smith’s Anvil … is sometimes made with a Pike, or Bickern, or Beak-iron, at one end of it.
1781. J. T. Dillon, Trav. Spain, 145. They have no other word in the Spanish language for a bickhorn, or a bench vice, than Vigornia.
1814. Archæol., XVII. 292. And nails with a bickorne.
