Guinea Pig - Wiktionary

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• Beginning
• 1 English Toggle English subsection
  • 1.1 Alternative forms
  • 1.2 Etymology
  • 1.3 Pronunciation
  • 1.4 Noun
    • 1.4.1 Derived terms
    • 1.4.2 Descendants
    • 1.4.3 Translations
    • 1.4.4 See also
  • 1.5 References

• Entry
• Discussion

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In other projects Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wiktionary, the free dictionary See also: guineapig and guinea-pig

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:guinea pigWikipedia

English Wikipedia has an article on:CaviaWikipedia

Alternative forms

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• guinea-pig, Guinea-pig
• Guinea pig
• guineapig

Etymology

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The origin of "guinea" in "guinea pig" is uncertain. One theory is that the animals, which are originally from South America, were brought to Europe by way of Guinea, leading people to think they had originated there.[1] "Guinea" was also frequently used in English to refer generally to any far-off, unknown country, and so the name may simply be a colorful reference to the animal's foreignness.[2] Others believe "guinea" may be an alteration of the word coney (“rabbit”); guinea pigs were referred to as "pig coneys" in Edward Topsell's 1607 treatise on quadrupeds.[1]

The figurative sense of "experimental subject" was first used in the early 20th century, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, which cites examples from 1913 and 1920.[3] It arouse from the once extensive usage of guinea pigs in scientific research since at least the 17th century, which had a peak in popularity in the 19th and 20th centuries, when they were part of groundbreaking germ-theory research and of orbital space flights.[4][5] Compare Italian cavia, Portuguese cobaia, and the latter's loans into French cobaye, Spanish cobaya, Romanian cobai, and Turkish kobay, all of which mean both "guinea pig" and "volunteer for lab experiment", with the latter often being the commoner sense.

Pronunciation

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• IPA(key): /ˈɡɪni pɪɡ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

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guinea pig (plural guinea pigs)

1. Any tailless rodent of the genus Cavia, which have short ears and superficially resemble large hamsters.
   1. (especially) A domestic guinea pig, Cavia porcellus, often kept as a pet. Synonyms: (formal name) cavy, domestic cavy, domestic guinea pig
2. (figuratively) A living experimental subject. Synonym: lab rat He became a human guinea pig and was paid by the company.
   • 1970, Larry Niven, Ringworld, page 115:[H]e spoke of the unwisdom of volunteering one's services as a guinea pig.
   • 2008 October, Davy Rothbart, “How I caught up with dad”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 8, →ISSN, page 112:My dad told me about his days in the Navy: He'd agreed to be a guinea pig in exchange for a shorter enlistment. They kept him awake for a week straight.
3. (dated, slang) A professional company director, without time or real qualifications for the duties.
4. (nautical, obsolete) A midshipman in the East India service; (by extension) a low-skilled or non-proficient seaman.
   • 1748, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random‎[3], page 183:A good seaman he is... none of your guinea-pigs.
   • 1779, Macintosh, Travels, quoted in Carey, Old Days, i. 73 I promise you, to me it was no slight penance to be exposed during the whole voyage to the half sneering, satirical looks of the mates and guinea-pigs.

Derived terms

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• Abyssinian guinea pig
• act as a guinea pig
• Agouti guinea pig
• Brazilian guinea pig, Brazilian Guinea Pig (Cavia aperea)
• Brindle guinea pig
• common guinea pig
• Crested guinea pig
• Dalmatian guinea pig
• domesticated guinea pig
• domestic guinea pig
• domestic guinea pig, Cavia porcellus (Cavia anolaimae, Cavia guianae)
• domestic guinea pig genome
• Dutch guinea pig
• Greater guinea pig, Greater Guinea Pig, Cavia magna
• guinea pig breed
• guinea pig breeder
• guinea pig brush
• guinea pig cage
• guinea pig diseases
• guinea pig fancier
• guinea pig fancy
• guinea pig food
• guinea pig genetics
• guinea pig genome
• guinea piggie
• guinea piggies
• guinea piggy
• guinea pig handbook
• guinea pig husbandry
• guinea piglet
• guinea pig meat
• guinea pig model
• guinea pig night
• guinea-pig productivity
• guinea pig pup
• guinea pig sounds
• guinea pigs' teeth
• guinea pig strains
• guinea pig world
• hairless guinea pig
• Himalayan guinea pig
• human guinea pig
• Intermediate guinea pig, Intermediate Guinea Pig, Cavia intermedia
• laboratory guinea pig
• long-haired guinea pig
• long-haired rosetted guinea pig
• Montane guinea pig, Montane Guinea Pig, Cavia tschudii (Cavia nana)
• parti-colored guinea pig
• Peruvian guinea pig
• Rex guinea pig
• Roan guinea pig
• rough-coated guinea pig
• Satin guinea pig
• Self guinea pig
• Sheltie guinea pig
• Shiny guinea pig, Shiny Guinea Pig, Cavia fulgida
• short-haired guinea pig
• smooth-coated guinea pig
• smooth-haired guinea pig
• Teddy guinea pig
• Texel guinea pig
• Tortoiseshell guinea pig
• wild guinea pig

Descendants

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• Sranan Tongo: dyinipi

Translations

[edit] rodent

Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can Afrikaans: marmotjie (af) Albanian: kavie, gini thi Arabic: خِنْزِير غِينِيَّا m (ḵinzīr ḡiniyyā) Egyptian Arabic: فار جبلي m (fār gabalī) Armenian: ծովախոզուկ (hy) (covaxozuk) Asturian: cobaya f Azerbaijani: dəniz donuzcuğu Basque: akuri Belarusian: марска́я сві́нка f (marskája svínka) Breton: razh-indez Bulgarian: мо́рско свинче́ (bg) n (mórsko svinčé) Burmese: ပူး (my) (pu:) Catalan: cobai (ca), conillet d'índia Chinese: Cantonese: 天竺鼠 (tin1 zuk1 syu2) Mandarin: 豚鼠 (zh) (túnshǔ), 天竺鼠 (zh) (tiānzhúshǔ), 荷蘭豬 / 荷兰猪 (zh) (hélánzhū) Cornish: hogh Gyni m Czech: morče (cs) n Danish: marsvin (da) n Dutch: guinees biggetje n, cavia (nl) m Esperanto: kobajo Estonian: merisiga Faroese: marsvín n Finnish: marsu (fi) French: cochon d'Inde (fr) m, cobaye (fr) m Friulian: cavie Galician: cobaia (gl) f Georgian: ზღვის გოჭი (zɣvis goč̣i) German: Meerschweinchen (de) n, (colloquial) Meerschwein (de) n Greek: ινδικό χοιρίδιο f (indikó choirídio) Hebrew: קביה (he) (kávia), שרקן m (sharkán), חזיר ים m (khazír iám) Hindi: गिनी पिग (ginī pig) Hungarian: tengerimalac (hu) Icelandic: naggrís (is) m Ido: kobayo (io) Indonesian: tikus belanda (id), marmut (id) Irish: muc ghuine f Italian: cavia (it) f, porcellino d'India m, marà (it) Japanese: モルモット (ja) (morumotto), 天竺鼠 (ja) (てんじくねずみ, tenjiku-nezumi), ギニーピッグ (ginī piggu) Khmer: កណ្ដុរសំពៅ (kɑndao sɑmpɨv) Korean: 기니피그 (ko) (ginipigeu), 모르모트 (moreumoteu) Ladin: porcel de mar Latin: Cavia porcellus Latvian: jūras cūciņa Laz: please add this translation if you can Lithuanian: jūrų kiaulytė Lower Sorbian: morska swinka Luxembourgish: Mierschwéngchen n Macedonian: морско прасе n (morsko prase), заморец m (zamorec) Malay: marmut, tikus belanda, argus, arkus Maltese: fenek tal-Indja Maori: kinikini, kinipīki Mongolian: усан гахай (usan gaxaj) Nheengatu: sawiyá Norman: couochon d'la Dginnée m Norwegian: Bokmål: marsvin n Nynorsk: marsvin n Occitan: cobai Persian: خوکچه هندی (xukče-ye hendi) Polish: kawia domowa f, świnka morska (pl) f Portuguese: cobaia (pt) f, porquinho-da-índia (pt) m, preá-da-índia m, rato-chino m Quechua: kututu (qu), quwi, gowi, haka Romani: balo-koro m, bali-kori f Romanian: cobai (ro) m Romansch: portg da mar m Russian: морска́я сви́нка (ru) f (morskája svínka), сви́нка (ru) f (svínka) Sami: mársa Sardinian: càvia Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: заморче n, заморац m, морско прасе n Roman: zamorče (sh) n, zamorac (sh) m, morsko prase (sh) n Shan: ပူး (shn) (púu) Sicilian: ciuḍḍu m, purciḍḍuzzu d'Innia m Slovak: morča (sk) n, morské prasiatko n Slovene: budra f, morski prašiček (sl) m Spanish: conejillo de Indias (es) m (especially figurative usage), cobaya (es) m or f (especially scientific usage), acure (es) m (Venezuela), curí m (Colombia, Dominican Republic), curiel m (Cuba), cuy (es) m (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Southern Colombian Andes), cui m, cavia m, corí m, cuis (es) m, cuyo (es) m, cuye (es) m, cuilo m, cuin (es) m, cuina f, cobayo (es) m Swedish: marsvin (sv) n Tagalog: dagang-puti Thai: หนูตะเภา (nǔu-dtà-pao) Turkish: kobay (tr) Ukrainian: морська́ сви́нка f (morsʹká svýnka) Upper Sorbian: wujk Uyghur: دېڭىز چوشقىسى (dë'ngiz choshqisi) Vietnamese: chuột lang (vi), bọ (vi) Volapük: kavead Welsh: mochyn cwta m West Frisian: bargemot Yiddish: ים־חזירל n (yám-kházerl)

experimental subject

Albanian: gini thi Bulgarian: опитно зайче n (opitno zajče) Chinese: Cantonese: 白老鼠 (baak6 lou5 syu2) Mandarin: 小白鼠 (zh) (xiǎobáishǔ), 實驗品 / 实验品 (shíyànpǐn) Czech: pokusný králík m Danish: forsøgskanin c Dutch: proefkonijn (nl) n Finnish: koekaniini (fi) French: cobaye (fr) m Galician: cobaia (gl) f Georgian: საცდელი ვირთხა (sacdeli virtxa), საცდელი ბაჭია (sacdeli bač̣ia), საცდელი ცხოველი (sacdeli cxoveli) German: Versuchskaninchen (de) n, Proband (de) m, Probandin (de) f, Versuchsperson (de) f Greek: πειραματόζωο (el) n (peiramatózoo) Hebrew: שפן נסיונות m (shafán nisionot) Hungarian: kísérleti nyúl (hu) Indonesian: kelinci percobaan (id) Italian: cavia (it) f Japanese: モルモット (ja) (morumotto) Khmer: កណ្ដុរស (km) (kândŏrsâ) Korean: 모르모트 (moreumoteu) Macedonian: заморче m (zamorče) Norwegian: prøvekanin m, forsøkskanin (no) m Polish: królik doświadczalny m Portuguese: cobaia (pt) f Romanian: cobai (ro) m Russian: подо́пытный кро́лик (ru) m (podópytnyj królik) Slovak: pokusný králik m Spanish: conejillo de Indias (es) m, cobaya (es) m or f, cobayo (es) m Swedish: försökskanin (sv) c Thai: หนูทดลอง (th) Turkish: kobay (tr) Ukrainian: піддослідний кролик m (piddoslidnyj krolyk)

See also

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• cavy boar
• cavy piglet
• cavy sow
• popcorning
• wheek

References

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1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wagner, Joseph E.; Manning, Patrick J (1976), The Biology of the Guinea Pig, Academic Press, →ISBN
2. ^ “Guinea pig definition and meaning”, in Collins Dictionary‎[1], Harper Collins, 31 August 2023 (last accessed)
3. ^ “guinea pig, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2025.
4. ^ Guerrini, Anita (2003), Experimenting with Humans and Animals, Johns Hopkins, →ISBN, pages 42, 98–104
5. ^ Gray, Tara (1998), “A Brief History of Animals in Space”, in NASA History‎[2], National Aeronautics and Space Administration, retrieved 8 April 2025

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