guinea pig

Meaning

1. Any tailless rodent of the genus Cavia, which have short ears and superficially resemble large hamsters.
2. (especially) Any tailless rodent of the genus Cavia, which have short ears and superficially resemble large hamsters.
3. (figuratively) A living experimental subject.
4. (dated, slang) A professional company director, without time or real qualifications for the duties.
5. (obsolete) A midshipman in the East India service; (by extension) a low-skilled or non-proficient seaman.

Synonyms

cavy

subject

case

Cavia cobaya

porpoise

rabbit

🐰

rat

🐀

shrew

hamster

🐹

vole

testee

Cavia porcellus

mouse

🐭

Translations

cobaye

Meerschweinchen

cavia

cobaia

cobaya

cavia

cochon d’Inde

cuy

porquinho-da-índia

conejillo de Indias

kobay

cobayo

guinees biggetje

cobaia

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈɡɪni pɪɡ/

Etymology

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. "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. 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.
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. 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. 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.