The origins of English guinea pig and German Meerschweinchen again

Abstract

This is a note to support and expand recent work on the etymology of German Meer­ schwein chen, English guinea pig, and related forms with a body of dated evidence, including new first attestations for English guinea pig and Polish świnka morska. “Is the English guinea pig a pig from Guinea, and the German Meerschweinchen a piggy from the sea?” Marek Stachowski has asked (Stachowski 2014), returning to the question with a supplemental note on English guinea pig (Stachowski 2018). As he points out, “one cannot but wonder why this small animal, so utterly different from a pig, is nevertheless called a pig, as well as why it should be a pig from Guinea if it does not live in Guinea at all” (Stachowski 2014: 221). Its names in English and German are indeed puzzling. Stachowski’s masterly presentation and analysis of the evidence can, I think, be taken even further by a consideration of the dates at which some of the evidence is attested. Let us begin with the second element, pig. Stachowski (2014: 222) notes that “the animal is called a pig also in quite a few other languages (e.g. German Meer­ schweinchen ...)”, and discusses the possible relevance of German Meerschwein ‘capybara’. The capybara is roughly the size and shape of a small pig, justifying the second element of Meerschwein.1 The guinea pig, like the capybara, is a furry South 1 Cf. Marcgraf (1648: 230): “figura pene porcorum habet”; Labat (1731: 3.298): “Il différe [sic] peu des cochons terrestres”.