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prettygoodword ([personal profile] prettygoodword) wrote2007-04-16 07:19 am

hippogriff

hippogriff - n., a creature having the wings, claws, and head of a griffin and the body and hindquarters of a horse.


Traditionally, the offspring of a griffin and a mare. Wiki has some background -- the Virgil bit is interesting. From French, from Italian, from ippo (from Greek hippo, horse) + grifo (from Latin gryphus, griffin, itself from Greek grỳ„p-, having a curved nose).

---L.