The term hippocampus was first introduced in the seventeenth century from Late Latin, where it described a mythical creature that was a combination of a horse and a dolphin, famously known for pulling the chariot of Poseidon/Neptune. This creature, similar to the capricorn, also appeared in Etruscan and Pictish folklore. Over time, the term was adopted for the region of the brain responsible for memory and learning due to a perceived resemblance between the creature and the brain structure. The Latin word is derived from the Greek hippokampos, which comes from hippos meaning “horse” and kampos meaning “monster”. The root hippos can also be found in words like hippodrome and the name Phillip, originating from Proto-Indo-European hekus meaning “swift”, while kampos might come from a word meaning “caterpillar”.
