Word ἵππος is treated as a compound one, consisting of verb hiesthai and noun pous, constructing a descriptive etymology to render a physical attribute of this specific animal. Although phonetically hippos and hiesthai only have in common the aspiration and the “i”, hiesthai was obviously considered as appropriate due to the semantic affinity with the feature of speed, the main characteristic of horses. The fact that the same etymology occurs in Damascius too, who was the last Head of the School of Athens and in fact in the same context (with the etymology of ἄνθρωπος), may imply that this specific example could have been integrated in the linguistic discussions of the respective Neoplatonic School in general