antiquity, a fabulous animal, half man half horse.

What gave rise to the fable of Hippocentaur, was this. The Thessalians are said to have been the first inventors of the art of breaking horses; and being first seen on horseback, they seemed to make but one body with the horses; whence the origin of the fable.

Hippocrepis, common horse-shoe vetch, in botany, a genus of the diadelphia decandra clas. The pod is compressed and crooked. There are three species, only one of which, viz. the comosa, or tufted horse-shoe vetch, is a native of Britain.