'archaeohippus' originates from Greek, specifically the words 'archaios' and 'hippos', where 'archaios' meant 'ancient' and 'hippos' meant 'horse'.

'archaeohippus' was formed in New Latin (scientific nomenclature) by combining the Greek roots 'archaios' + 'hippos' and was adopted as the genus name 'Archaeohippus' in paleontological literature.

Initially it literally meant 'ancient horse', and as a taxonomic name it continues to denote an ancient (extinct) horse genus without major change in that literal sense.