I opened my Word of the Day from Dictionary.com, truly curious about this one: hippophile. I imagined it was either a person who loves big hips or loves hippos, the animal.

Well, you may already know this (I did not) but hippo means horse! Therefore, a hippophile is a person who loves horses. Who knew. Hippo is a recent addition to our living, evolving language, used only since the mid-1800s.

So why then, is a hippo named with the word for horse? My suspicion is that they must be relatives. No, I learned that the hippo’s scientific name is Hippopotamus amphibious, which means river horse. Furthermore, their closest living relatives are whales and porpoises. A more accurate name for the hippo would be land whale!

Words take us down interesting paths! Who knew that a horse is a hippo and a hippopotamus is a whale!