Is a seahorse a ‘sea’ ‘horse’ in any language?
In English, we know that the marine fish with the long snout and the curled tail is called a ‘seahorse’. It makes sense; the shape of the head resembles the those of our familiar land horses. Evidently ‘seahorse’ is the name given to 54 different species within the genus Hippocampus, from the Ancient Greek words hippos ‘horse’ and kampos ‘sea monster’.
Do other languages use the same concept?
- Spanish: caballo de mar
- French: hippocampe
- Turkish: denizatı
- Arabic: فرس البحر faras albahr
Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
- Bosnian: morskog konjica
- Chinese: 海马 Hǎimǎ
- Vietnamese: giống cá ngựa
- Hungarian: csikóhal (‘colt’ ‘fish’)
Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
An entire dinner party equipped with smartphones could not find an exception. I’m so curious: Did people in different languages see the animal and choose the same concept for naming? Or was it a case of calques, in which an idea for a term is translated across languages? I can’t find an answer online.
If anyone has an exception to the rule, or etymological knowledge about seahorses, please leave us a comment!
