hippocampus

Forms

hippocampus m (genitive hippocampī); second declension^[1] Also hippocampos, with the Greek ending.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἱππόκαμπος (hippókampos),^[2][3][1][5] a compound of ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) and κάμπος (kámpos, “sea monster”).^[1][6] Köbler compares, with a question mark, καμπή (kampḗ, “bend, joint”).^[5]

Nonius explained the Latin word by the bending of the creatures' fishy tails.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first author to use it is Laevius (2nd/1st century BC), who describes delphīnō cinctīs vehiculīs hippocampīsque asperīs, “with vehicles ringed by dolphins and with rough sea-horses”, in the sense of the fabled creature.^[2][7][5]

Semantic evolution

Pliny the Elder uses it both for the real fish, the seahorse,^[2][3][4] and for the fabled animal, as in Nēreidēs suprā delphīnōs et cētē aut hippocampōs sedentēs, “Nereids sitting on dolphins, whales or sea-horses”.^[2][8] The TLL defines that creature as a sea monster made of horse and fish that accompanies the gods of the sea, and Nonius calls it equī marīnī.^[7] Georges gives caballiō marīnus as the native Latin name.^[4]

English used it for the fish from the 1570s, for the sea monster from about 1600, and since 1706 for a part of the brain thought to resemble the fish.^[6]

Timeline

• 2nd/1st century BC – Laevius uses it of the fabled sea-horses.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it for the seahorse and for the fabled creature.^[2][3][5]
• end of 4th/beginning of 5th century AD – Nonius explains it as equī marīnī.^[7][5]
• 1570s – English uses hippocampus for the seahorse.^[6]
• 1706 – In English it becomes the name of a part of the brain.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A seahorse (the fish).^[2][3][4]
2. A fabled sea creature, part horse and part fish, that attends the sea gods.^[2][7][9]

Related words

• caballio

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ VoLat: Vocabolario della Lingua Latina (2018), Milan: Hoepli
9. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier