guinea

guinea

See also: Guinea

English

Etymology

From Guinea, the country in West Africa, the coins originally being made of gold from the region and used for African trade, and the guinea fowl being found there.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “the slur”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɪni/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪni

Noun

guinea (plural guineas)

1. (US, slang, derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of Italian descent.
   • 1982, Stephen King, Survivor Type

     If I’m to tell the whole truth—and why not? I sure have the time!—I’ll have to start by saying I was born Richard Pinzetti, in New York’s Little Italy. My father was an Old World guinea.

2. (Britain, historical) A gold coin originally worth twenty shillings; later (from 1717 until the adoption of decimal currency) standardised at a value of twenty-one shillings.
   • 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, OCLC 702939134:

     English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and moidores and sequins, the pictures of all the kings of Europe for the last hundred years, strange Oriental pieces stamped with what looked like wisps of string or bits of spider's web, round pieces and square pieces, and pieces bored through the middle, as if to wear them round your neck—nearly every variety of money in the world must, I think, have found a place in that collection...

   • 1962 June, “New Reading on Railways: Locomotives of British Railways, by H. C. Casserley & L. Asher, Spring Books, 21s.”, in Modern Railways, page 432:

     However, since there are 488 pages in all for a bargain price of a guinea one must not be too carping.

3. Synonym of guinea fowl
   • 1944, Emily Carr, The House of All Sorts, “Brooding and Homing,”

     The guineas peeped complainingly, the goslings waddled into all the puddles and came back to chill my skin.

Synonyms

• (person of Italian descent): dago, Eyetie, goombah, greaseball, guido, wog, wop

Descendants

• → Arabic: جنيه‎ (d͡ʒu.najh)
• → Egyptian Arabic: جنيه‎ (ginēh)
• → Irish: gine
• → Scottish Gaelic: gini
• → Spanish: guinea
• → Welsh: gini

Translations

person of Italian descent — see wop

coin worth 21 shillings

Arabic: جُنَيْه‎ m (junayh) Bulgarian: гвинея f (gvineja) Chinese: Mandarin: 堅尼／坚尼 (jiānní) Finnish: guinea (fi) French: guinée (fr) f German: Guinee (de) f Hindi: गिनी (hi) m (ginī) Irish: gine m Italian: ghinea f Japanese: ギニー (ginī) Korean: 기니 (ko) (gini) Polish: gwinea (pl) f Portuguese: guinéu (pt) m Russian: гине́я (ru) f (ginéja) Scottish Gaelic: gini m Spanish: guinea (es) f Welsh: gini f

References

• “guinea”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

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Finnish

Etymology

From English guinea.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡineɑ/, [ˈɡine̞ɑ]

Noun

guinea

1. guinea (British gold coin)

Declension

Inflection of guinea (Kotus type 12/kulkija, no gradation)
nominative		guinea	guineat
genitive		guinean	guineoiden guineoitten
partitive		guineaa	guineoita
illative		guineaan	guineoihin
		singular	plural
nominative		guinea	guineat
accusative	nom.	guinea	guineat
	gen.	guinean
genitive		guinean	guineoiden guineoitten guineainrare
partitive		guineaa	guineoita
inessive		guineassa	guineoissa
elative		guineasta	guineoista
illative		guineaan	guineoihin
adessive		guinealla	guineoilla
ablative		guinealta	guineoilta
allative		guinealle	guineoille
essive		guineana	guineoina
translative		guineaksi	guineoiksi
instructive		—	guineoin
abessive		guineatta	guineoitta
comitative		—	guineoineen

Possessive forms of guinea (type kulkija)
possessor	singular	plural
1st person	guineani	guineamme
2nd person	guineasi	guineanne
3rd person	guineansa

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Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡiˈnea/ [ɡiˈne.a]
• Rhymes: -ea
• Syllabification: gui‧ne‧a

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English guinea.

Noun

guinea f (plural guineas)

1. guinea (British gold coin)

Etymology 2

See guineo.

Noun

guinea f (plural guineas)

1. female equivalent of guineo

Adjective

guinea

1. feminine singular of guineo

Further reading

• “guinea”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014