# guinea pig



## rusita preciosa

What do you call this animal in your language? (please provide literal translation if applicable)

Russian: *морская свинка* /morskaya svinka/ - little marine pig


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## ThomasK

Een *cavia* or een *Guinees biggetje* (piglet) in Dutch.


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## XiaoRoel

En español: *conejillo de Indias* o *cobaya*.
En portugués: *cobaia, porquinho-da-índia, preá, preá-da-índia*.
En galego: *cobaia, chino, rato chino, coello de indias*.
En catalán: *cobai, conill porquí, conillet d'Indias*.
En alemán: *Meerschweinchen*.
En la palabra *guinea pig*, _versión inglesa_ de _cobaya_, *guinea* no es un nombre geográfico, sino de moneda, porque se vendían por una guinea.
La palabra *cobaya/cobaia* procede de una lengua indígena brasileña (¿tupí?) de *cabujé* ('ratón que se come'). De esta palabra procede el latín científico _cobaya (1760)_ de donde deriva en varias lenguas.


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## DearPrudence

In French:
*cochon d'Inde* (literally "pig of India"*)*
cobaye*

* before reading this, I had no idea where its name came from:


> Donc, contrairement à ce que le nom donné par Christophe Colomb, qui s'était trompé de continent, pourrait le laisser croire, les cochons d'Inde ne sont pas des porcs et ne viennent pas d'Inde[1]. Son nom de *cochon d'Inde* vient de son cri semblable à celui du porc et du fait qu'il vienne d"Amérique du Sud appelée autrefois *les Indes*.


*pig*, because its cry sounds like that of a pig
*India *because it comes from South America, formerly called "les Indes".


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## bibax

And we still call the native Americans "the *Indians*" which is somedeal confusing.

Czech:

to *morče* (neuter) derived from *moře* = sea;

Slovak:

*morča* (like in Czech);


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## sakvaka

*Finnish*: _marsu_

I'm sorry, I haven't a clue about the etymology of this. Neither do I know if there's any connection with the cartoon character by André Franquin...


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## hui

sakvaka said:


> *Finnish*: _marsu_
> 
> I'm sorry, I haven't a clue about the etymology of this. Neither do I know if there's any connection with the cartoon character by André Franquin...


 _M__arsu_ is an adaptation from *Swedish *_marsvin_ (sea-pig)_._


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## bibax

*marsu* - it resembles Lithuanian _mares_ (= sea) or Slavic _morski_ (adj. "of the sea") or even Latin *mar*is *su*s (= sea swine). 



> O.E. mere "sea, lake, pool, pond," from P.Gmc. *mari (cf. O.N. marr, O.S. meri "sea," Du. meer "lake," O.H.G. mari, Ger. Meer "sea," Goth. marei "sea," mari-saiws "lake"), from PIE *mori-/*mari "sea" (cf. L. mare, O.C.S. morje, Rus. more, Lith. mares, O.Ir. muir, Welsh mor "sea"



In any case the ultimate known source is PIE: **mari-* and **su-*.


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## sakvaka

hui said:


> _M__arsu_ is an adaptation from *Swedish *_marsvin_ (sea-pig)_._



That was a quick reply, thanks!


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## rusita preciosa

XiaoRoel said:


> En español: *conejillo de Indias* o *cobaya*.
> En portugués: *cobaia, porquinho-da-índia, preá, preá-da-índia*.
> En galego: *cobaia, chino, rato chino, coello de indias*.
> En catalán: *cobai, conill porquí, conillet d'Indias*.
> En alemán: *Meerschweinchen*.
> En la palabra *guinea pig*, _versión inglesa_ de _cobaya_, *guinea* no es un nombre geográfico, sino de moneda, porque se vendían por una guinea.
> La palabra *cobaya/cobaia* procede de una lengua indígena brasileña (¿tupí?) de *cabujé* ('ratón que se come'). De esta palabra procede el latín científico _cobaya (1760)_ de donde deriva en varias lenguas.


I dodn't know that *guinea* in this case was money rather than location, thanks XiaoRoel! (did these animals cost one guinea?)
What about  *conejillo de Indias* - does it mean "little rabbit of Indies"?


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## XiaoRoel

> did these animals cost one guinea?


Yes.


> does it mean "little rabbit of Indies"?


Also yes.


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## Orlin

Bulgarian: морско свинче (morsko svinche) - the model is the same as in Russian.


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
«Ινδικό χοιρίδιο»
Inði'ko çi'riðio
lit. "Indian piglet"

[ð] is a voiced dental non-sibilant fricative
[ç] is a voiceless palatal fricative


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## Maroseika

It's quite clear why it is called 'Indian pig" or something like that in the most part of languages. 
But why "sea" as in Russian, German, Slovak, Bulgarian, Finnish, Swedish and maybe some others? Most likely all these "sea pigs" origin from one source, but what was the motive of such a name?


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## CapnPrep

XiaoRoel said:


> rusita preciosa said:
> 
> 
> 
> did these animals cost one guinea?
> 
> 
> 
> Yes.
Click to expand...

No. I mean, I don't know how much they cost*, but this is not the origin of the name. According to the OED:Perh. the animal was thought to resemble the young of the Guinea Hog (_Potamochœrus_); or the name _Guinea_ may have been applied loosely, as in some other instances, as a designation for an unknown distant country. Confusion with _Guiana_ seems unlikely.​*The term _guinea pig_ appears in English around 1660. This is also when the guinea coin was first minted, with a value of £1, approximately equivalent to *£80* today. It seems unlikely that anyone would have paid such a high price for one of these animals (maybe a century earlier, when they were first introduced to England, but not in the 1660s).


Maroseika said:


> Most likely all these "sea pigs" origin from one source, but what was the motive of such a name?


If you can believe Wikipedia, these names come from the practice of using guinea pigs as food on sea voyages.


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## Tjahzi

hui said:


> _M__arsu_ is an adaptation from *Swedish *_marsvin_ (sea-pig)_._


 
I'd just like to add that this in turn is a loan from German _Meerschwein ("sea-pig")_. In modern Swedish however, _sea_ is called _hav_ and there exists no long any cognate of German _Meer_. Hence, the name _marsvin_ is not associated with sea or water, but simply "just a name". (_Svin,_ however, is modern, althoguh alternative, word for _pig_.)


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## Maroseika

CapnPrep said:


> If you can believe Wikipedia, these names come from the practice of using guinea pigs as food on sea voyages.


Thank you for the link, I saw it but cannot take it for serious.
First, how came this term first appeared in German, the language of the people not very much known as sailors?
Second, how many sea pigs an average ship needed to feed the crew? I'm afraid, too much.
Third, sea pigs are very sensitive to the availability and quality of the fresh water - eternal problem of the sailors.
Therefore I doubt they could obtain their sea name by this reason.

Maybe Germans first called them _Überseeschwein _(overseas pig) and only later shortened to _Seeschwein_?


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## CapnPrep

Maroseika said:


> Thank you for the link, I saw it but cannot take it for serious.



Yes, I'm quite suspicious of this explanation also. If guinea pigs were such a good source of meat for European sailors, it seems like they would have been adopted as a food by Europeans more generally.

I agree with you that it's probably enough to say that _meer-_ just means "some exotic thing coming from far away over the ocean", as it does (according to some sources) in _Meerrettich_ "horseradish", _Meerkatze_ "some kind of monkey", etc.


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## Maroseika

CapnPrep said:


> I agree with you that it's probably enough to say that _meer-_ just means "some exotic thing coming from far away over the ocean", as it does (according to some sources) in _Meerrettich_ "horseradish", _Meerkatze_ "some kind of monkey", etc.


I'm not sure it sounds logical in German that just _meer- _means overseas, maybe some German native will clarify the matter.
As for _Meerrettich_, this example does not seem to me relevant, because horseradish is a European plant, so no reason to call it "overseas". Why gounons call _Meerkatzen_, this is really interesting. I thought first, that's because they resembled sea bears (in Russian sea bears are translated as "sea little cats'), but in German it's also connected with bear, not cat.


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## Ottilie

Romanian porcuşor de Guninea ( little pig of Guinea)


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## robbie_SWE

Ottilie said:


> Romanian porcuşor de Guninea ( little pig of Guinea)


 
Sorry Ottilie, but I've never heard of this name. 

The general term for this animal is *cobai* or the more head-on form *porc-de-India*.

 robbie


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## Ottilie

http://www.google.ro/search?hl=ro&b...ea&aq=0&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=porcusor+de+&gs_rfai=

I've never heard of porc de India as well. ''Cobai'' is indeed the term,but for me it sounds like it's that animal they use in labs for tests,not that pet people have at home. A friend of mine has a pet-shop and he always called that animal ''porcuşor de Gunineea''


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## robbie_SWE

Ottilie said:


> http://www.google.ro/search?hl=ro&b...ea&aq=0&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=porcusor+de+&gs_rfai=
> 
> I've never heard of porc de India as well.


 
My bad, thanks Ottilie!


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