Etymology

sea horse

Today it means: Any of the small fish of the genus Hippocampus that have a horselike head and swim upright. Full definition →

Middle English sehors
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited fromsehors“walrus”
  2. English todaysea horse

From Middle English sehors (“walrus”), equivalent to sea + horse. Probably a calque of obsolete French cheval de mer or directly of Late Latin caballus marinus. Named so after the shape of its head being similar to horse's head.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.