Origin. Welsh: Fighting chief; fierce. The fierce Gryphon of Greek mythology and medieval legend was a creature with foreparts of an eagle and hindquarters of a lion.
The word hippogriff, also spelled hippogryph, is derived from the Ancient Greek: ἵππος híppos, meaning "horse", and the Italian grifo meaning "griffin" (from Latin gryp or gryphus), which denotes another mythical creature, with the head of an eagle and body of a lion, that is purported to be the father of the ...
