guinea pig (English)
Where does "guinea pig" come from?
The origin of the 'guinea' in guinea pig remains debated, potentially stemming from the animal’s arrival in Europe via African trade routes or as an alteration of the word 'coney,' meaning rabbit. By the 20th century, the term shifted from a simple descriptor of this South American rodent to a figurative expression for a human experimental subject, reflecting the animal's long history as a staple of scientific research. This double meaning, referring to both the creature and a lab volunteer, is shared across many other languages, including Portuguese, French, and Spanish.
Full etymology tree
- guinea pig (English), 'Any tailless rodent of the genus Cavia, which have short ears and superficially resemble large hamsters.'
- compound guinea (English), 'A gold coin originally worth twenty shillings; later (from 1717 until the adoption of decimal currency) standardised at a value of twenty-one shillings.'
- derived coney (English), 'The Jamaican coney (Geocapromys brownii), a hutia endemic to Jamaica.'
- inherited cony (Middle English)
- inherited conil (Anglo-Norman)
- inherited cuniculus (Latin), 'a rabbit'
- inherited conil (Anglo-Norman)
- inherited cony (Middle English)
- derived coney (English), 'The Jamaican coney (Geocapromys brownii), a hutia endemic to Jamaica.'
- compound pig (English), 'Any of several mammalian species of the family Suidae, having cloven hooves, bristles and a snout adapted for digging; especially the domesticated animal Sus domesticus.'
- inherited pigge (Middle English), 'A piglet or young pig.'
- inherited *picg (Old English)
- inherited pigge (Middle English), 'A piglet or young pig.'
- compound guinea (English), 'A gold coin originally worth twenty shillings; later (from 1717 until the adoption of decimal currency) standardised at a value of twenty-one shillings.'
Direct ancestors
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris