Danbooru

Tag alias: elbow_glove -> elbow_gloves

Posted under Tags

NeverGonnaGive said:

There's one off the list of "tags I wasn't rightly aware of". But then, single_horn isn't a thing, and that one I keep wanting to use.

Actually, horn is its own tag (not aliased to horns), and to be used only for a single horn. Perhaps it should be aliased to single_horn to make that more apparent, though.

Updated

I do know the horn tag, but didn't know about fang acting as precedent. I'd argue the two are different enough, though. Save for rhinos and some reptiles (inc. dinosaurs), I'd think "horns" is a natural pair IRL, so "single horn" matches the sorts of single_* tags for NPs. Where fangs/fang differs for me is that, along from "fangs" incorporating two or four or a mouthful (which places it beyond "natural pairs"; we wouldn't use an extra_fangs tag), "fang" is usually a visual cue, and often enough of a character which would have more than one such tooth, but only one is on display (either set outside the mouth or the only one visible from the angle). If something would be tagged "single_horn", that's likely the only horn there is to display at all.

Leave it at horn.
My reasoning behind this is that if you use "single horn", you imply one of the following:

  • a single horn is strange/unnatural
  • there should be another one / a horn is missing (asymmetry)

horn has 7044 posts, so I'd say character's having a single horn is a common occurence.
Not to mention that some characters have 4 horns, so horns isn't always a natural pair.

Ah, forgot one other gambit: I see "horns", and I figure that's the pointy bits on a creature's face. I see "horn", and there's just as much chance to conceive a bicycle horn. Bringing up characters displayed with more than two horns, and that combined with the symmetry suggested by "4 horns" leaves me more convinced for "single horn". For a case of asymmetry, see Scythana. Then there's any case where two ("or more") horns were present, but one has been broken off. If this was a development of a character (known to have had multiple horns, but since displayed with only one intact), then "single horn" would come off better, inherently indicating the break from a paired/symmetrical norm. And it may well be a norm to consider horns as paired/symmetrical, since there's the concept of a unicorn. Yes, horses don't normally have horns at all, but similar creatures have antlers, which are paired off.

tl;dr - Horns are prolly more likely to be assumed to be paired or "reflected" along a line of symmetry, so single_horn does better at distinguishing that instance of this type of horn (as opposed to sound-making ones).

...That may be as good as my argument'll get.

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