# guinea pig

Pronunciation: say "GIN-ee pig" /ˈɡɪni pɪɡ/

## Noun

1. The domesticated rodent Cavia porcellus, a small tailless animal often kept as a pet.
   - Simple: A small animal with short ears and no tail that people often keep as a pet.
   - _Guinea pigs need vitamin C in their diet because they cannot make their own._
   - _Our classroom guinea pig squeaks loudly whenever someone opens the fridge._
2. A living subject used in an experiment or test, especially a person.
   - Simple: A person or animal that something new is tested on.
   - _Volunteers who serve as guinea pigs in drug trials are usually paid for their time._
   - _No parent wants a child to be a guinea pig for an untested school program._
3. Any of the tailless rodents of the genus Cavia, which have short ears and look somewhat like large hamsters.
   - Simple: Any of a group of small animals with no tail and short ears that look like big hamsters.
   - _More than one species of wild guinea pig lives in the grasslands and scrub of South America._
   - _Biologists trapped and released wild guinea pigs to count the population in the valley._

## Noun

4. A professional company director who sits on boards without the time or the real qualifications for the duties. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A person who is paid to sit on company boards but has no time or real skill for the work.
   - _Shareholders complained that the board was packed with guinea pigs who asked no questions._
   - _A titled guinea pig lent his name to the prospectus but never attended a single meeting._
5. A midshipman in the East India service, or, by extension, a seaman of little skill. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A young officer in training on East India ships, or any sailor who is not very good at the job.
   - _The mate cursed the guinea pigs who fumbled the rigging as the squall came on._
   - _At fifteen he went to sea as a guinea pig aboard a Company ship bound for Bombay._

## Origin

Why the animal is called "guinea" is uncertain: these South American animals may have reached Europe by way of Guinea, "Guinea" may simply stand for any far-off, unknown country, or it may be an alteration of coney ("rabbit"), since Edward Topsell's 1607 treatise on quadrupeds calls them "pig coneys". The figurative sense "experimental subject" is first recorded in the early 20th century, with examples from 1913 and 1920, and comes from the long use of guinea pigs in scientific research.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/guinea-pig (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).